In situ discovery on the formation of supported silver catalysts for ethylene epoxidation

Abstract

Silver particles supported on alumina are the main industrial catalysts for ethylene epoxidation. Silver catalysts are usually produced by an impregnation method followed by thermal decomposition. Although the decomposition process determines the structures and properties of silver catalysts, we are short of information on this high temperature process. Herein we employed a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) equipped with a heating stage to disclose the thermal decomposition process of silver precursor towards the preparation of high selective silver catalysts. It is found that the formation of silver catalysts experiences two steps: crystallization and decomposition. The crystallization occurs at the temperature below 80℃, resulting in the formation of silver complex. Further heating the sample to 140℃, leads to the formation of silver particles at alumina wafers. The atmosphere has a significant effect on the formation and performance of catalysts. When the samples are heated in the nitrogen, small silver particles with similar size are formed, which leads to a high selectivity of ethylene epoxidation. The role of thermal atmospheres on the size and property of silver catalysts is discussed in this paper.