Abstract
Development of a sustainable process for designing and synthesising an active and stable catalyst for hydrochlorination of acetylene is challenging, yet crucial, for industrial vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) production. Herein, direct synthesis of bimetallic AuCu catalysts using organic aqua regia (OAR) preparation methods was investigated. In comparison with conventional aqua regia (AR), bimetallic AuCu catalysts synthesised from OAR exhibit enhanced activity and stability. After careful characterisation of the catalyst samples using X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), this observation was justified for the following reasons: 1) the existence of sulphur and nitrogen atoms stabilised the cationic Au active sites, and 2) OAR helped to sustain the function of the Cu promotor by stabilising it. Advanced understanding on the importance of promoter stability has unveiled new perspectives for this research area.
Highlights
Acetylene hydrochlorination (C2 H2 + HCl → CH2 =CHCl, 4H = −124.8 kJ/mol) is an important reaction for producing vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) for chemical processing [1]
Compared with the synthetic process of the catalyst using aqua regia (AuCu/active carbon (AC)(AR)), we find that the AuCu/AC(OAR) exhibited a very good catalytic performance
Mechanistic studies revealed that the organic aqua regia (OAR) can stabilise Cu species to sustain the promoting effect of Cu
Summary
Acetylene hydrochlorination (C2 H2 + HCl → CH2 =CHCl, 4H = −124.8 kJ/mol) is an important reaction for producing vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) for chemical processing [1]. Pioneering work by Hutchings revealed that gold in the ionic state possesses a unique catalytic activity on the hydrochlorination reaction of acetylene [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Thereafter, catalysts with high efficiency in the form of Au/carbon demonstrate that the gold is feasible as a substitute for the poisonous HgCl2 catalyst [33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40]. Despite the impressive success achieved, the easy deactivation of Au3+ catalyst originated from its high standard electrode potential [41,42] and sintering of the catalyst [12], which largely restrains its application in industry
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