S. Albonetti
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento Chimica Industriale, Faculty Member
Pd/Rh and Pd/Pt catalysts supported on two different mesoporous materials – a Zr-doped MCM-41-type silica [Si/Zr = 5 w/w (SiZr)] and a commercial silica-alumina [Si/Al = 40:60 w/w (SiAl)] – were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation... more
Pd/Rh and Pd/Pt catalysts supported on two different mesoporous materials – a Zr-doped MCM-41-type silica [Si/Zr = 5 w/w (SiZr)] and a commercial silica-alumina [Si/Al = 40:60 w/w (SiAl)] – were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation using nanosized suspensions of alloy particles prepared by polyol-mediated synthesis in diethylene glycol (DEG). The catalytic behaviour of these catalysts was investigated in the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis/ring-opening of naphthalene at 6.0 MPa, by checking the role of both the main reaction conditions (temperature, contact time and H2/naphthalene molar ratio) and increasing amounts of dibenzothiophene (DBT). The catalysts supported on SiAl showed higher activity than catalysts supported on SiZr, thus suggesting that activity is favoured by higher acidity of the support and/or higher interaction of the nanosized metal particles with the support. While using the SiZr support, weaker metal-support interactions took place by forming catalysts with bigger metal and/or metal oxide particles. Besides, the catalyst with lowest noble-metal content (0.3 wt.%) (SiAl-0.3Pd/Pt-5) had the greatest acidity and metal surface and, consequently, the highest activity. Furthermore, it exhibited a good thiotolerance in presence of increasing amounts of DBT in the feed, thus maintaining a high catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of naphthalene, although with decreased yield in trans- and cis-decalin (decahydronaphthalene or DeHN) and high-molecular-weight compounds (H.M.W.), with a corresponding increased yield in the partially hydrogenated tetralin (tetrahydronaphthalene or TeHN).
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The structural relaxation around Cr(3+) in YAl(1-x)Cr(x)O(3) perovskites was investigated and compared with analogous Cr-Al joins (corundum, spinel, garnet). Eight compositions (x(Cr)((3+)) from 0 to 1) were prepared by sol-gel combustion... more
The structural relaxation around Cr(3+) in YAl(1-x)Cr(x)O(3) perovskites was investigated and compared with analogous Cr-Al joins (corundum, spinel, garnet). Eight compositions (x(Cr)((3+)) from 0 to 1) were prepared by sol-gel combustion and were analyzed by a combined X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron absorption spectroscopy (EAS) approach. The unit cell parameters and the XRD averaged octahedral (Cr,Al)-O and ([VIII])Y-O bond distances scale linearly with the chromium fraction. The optical parameters show an expected decrease of crystal field strength (10Dq) and an increase of covalency (B(35)) and polarizability (B(55)) toward YCrO(3), but a nonlinear trend outlines some excess 10Dq below x(Cr)((3+)) approximately 0.4. The local Cr-O bond lengths, as calculated from EAS, indicate a compression from 1.98 A (x(Cr)((3+)) = 1.0) down to 1.95 A (x(Cr)((3+)) = 0.035) so that the relaxation coefficient of perovskite (epsilon = 0.54) is the lowest in comparison with garnet (epsilon = 0.74), spinel (epsilon = 0.68), and corundum (epsilon = 0.58) in contrast with its structural features. The enhanced covalent character of the Cr(3+)-O-Cr(3+) bond in the one-dimensional arrangement of corner-sharing octahedra can be invoked as a factor limiting the perovskite polyhedral network flexibility. The increased probability of Cr-O-Cr clusters for x(Cr)((3+)) greater than approximately 0.4 is associated to diverging trends of nonequivalent interoctahedral angles. The relatively low relaxation degree of Y(Al,Cr)O(3) can be also understood by considering an additional contribution to 10Dq because of the electrostatic potential of the rest of the lattice ions upon the localized electrons of the CrO(6) octahedron. Such an "excess" of 10Dq increases when the point symmetry of the Cr site is low, as in perovskite, and would be affected by the change of yttrium effective coordination number observed by XRD for x(Cr)((3+)) greater than approximately 0.4. This would justify the systematic underestimation of local Cr-O bond distances, as inferred from EAS, compared to what is derived from X-ray absorption (XAS) studies implying a stronger degree of relaxation around Cr(3+) of all the structures considered and supporting the hypothesis that 10Dq from EAS contains more information than previously retained particularly an additional contribution from the next nearest neighboring ions.
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... Synthesis of Nb Doped Lead Zirconate Titanate by Chemical Methods** By Anna Luisa Costa,* Giulia Montanari, Carmen Galassi, Marin Cernea, Federica Bezzi and Stefania Albonetti ... Chem. 2001, 11, 1875. [22] Y. Narendar, GL Messing,... more
... Synthesis of Nb Doped Lead Zirconate Titanate by Chemical Methods** By Anna Luisa Costa,* Giulia Montanari, Carmen Galassi, Marin Cernea, Federica Bezzi and Stefania Albonetti ... Chem. 2001, 11, 1875. [22] Y. Narendar, GL Messing, Chem. Mater. 1997, 9, 580. ...