Promotional effect of Ni2P on mixed and separated phase MoS2/Al-SBA-15 (10) catalyst for hydrodenitrogenation of ortho-Propylaniline

Abstract

Mixed phase MoS2(Ni2P)/Al-SBA-15 (10) catalyst was prepared by incipient wet impregnation method using soft chemical approach by low temperature decomposition ATTM and separated phase Ni2P//MoS2/Al-SBA-15 (10) catalyst was set by simple mechanical separation of Ni2P/Al-SBA-15 (10) and MoS2/Al-SBA-15 (10) in a fixed bed reactor tube. The efficiency of both the catalysts was investigated for hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) of ortho-Propylaniline (OPA). The promotional effect of Ni2P in the mixed phase catalyst was correlated with spill-over hydrogen, hydrogenation active sites and acid sites. The synthesized catalysts were extensively characterized by various techniques such as XRD, BET, TPD/TPR, HR-SEM, HR-TEM, DRS-UV-Vis and XPS. The H2 pulse chemisorption study in correlation with HDN activity revealed that mixed phase MoS2(Ni2P)/Al-SBA-15 (10) catalyst possesses high spill-over hydrogen and high surface acidity. This study concluded that promotional effect and synergetic factor of Ni2P promoted MoS2/Al-SBA-15 (10) in the mixed phase catalyst is competitive over the separated phase Ni2P promoted MoS2/Al-SBA-15 (10) for HDN of OPA at atmospheric pressure.