Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.59, No.3, 1083-1092, 2020
Promoting the Performances of TiO2 Submicrosphere-Embedded Ru Nanoparticles in Benzene Selective Hydrogenation by Morphology Manipulation
We embedded Ru nanoparticles into mesoporous TiO2 submicrospheres (MTSSs) with tunable morphologies for benzene selective hydrogenation (BSH). It was identified that the TiO2 precursor prepared by the sol-gel step bore smooth microsphere morphology, which was transformed into the submicrosphere morphology with a rough surface by the subsequent solvothermal treatment and calcination, accompanied by a sharp increase in pore size but a decrease in acidity. The gradual elevation in the content of ammonia in the solvothermal mixture from 0 to 9.1 vol % further increased the pore size while imposing no evident impact on the acidity. In BSH to cyclohexene, the turnover frequency experienced the same variation as the acidity of the Ru@MTSS catalysts, whereas the initial selectivity toward cyclohexene (S-0) volcanically evolved with the pore size passing through a maximum of 90%, ascribed to the easy diffusion and desorption but suppressed readsorption of cyclohexene in the mesopores with proper size.