Enhanced stability of Pd/SPS catalyst over the one-pot liquid-phase synthesis of methyl isobutyl ketone by adding GO

Abstract

The low thermal-conductivity and poor thermal stability of resin limit the service life of commercial Pd/sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) catalyst for the industrial synthesis of methyl isobutyl ketone from acetone and H2. In this paper, a novel catalyst Pd/S(PS-GO) was fabricated via in situ microemulsion polymerization, followed by sulfonating and Pd loading. Both the long-term catalytic performance of Pd/S(PS-GO) and Pd/SPS catalysts were tested in a trickle-bed reactor. Results showed that Pd/S(PS-GO) catalyst exhibited obvious enhanced stability than Pd/SPS catalyst at 150 ℃ for 1000 h run. The characterizations of FT-IR, TGA, XPS, TEM and UV–vis revealed that the addition of GO significantly improved the thermal-conductivity and thermal stability of PS through noncovalent π–π stacking and covalent link between PS and GO sheets. As a consequence, the loss of –SO3H groups from resin matrix was efficiently depressed and led to the obvious enhanced stability of Pd/S(PS-GO) catalyst.