Formation and characterization of highly-dispersed metal colloid catalysts

摘要

The objective of this research is to explore the feasibility of using small metal colloids, in microemulsions, as catalysts. The product of this work will be a new concept for tailoring highly dispersed materials to specific catalytic reactions. The knowledge gained from the proposed research will be broadly applicable to variety of reactions, including hydrogenation, synthesis gas conversion, and hydrogen conversion. To achieve this objective, a plan has been formulated to prepare and characterize catalyst particles in organic solvents and to explore the use of catalyst particles. In this paper, we will discuss the use of inverse micelles to solubilize significant quantities of metal compounds in hydrocarbon solvents and their reduction, decomposition, and sulfidation to give colloidal catalytic materials. We will also discuss in detail the characterization of these materials, present preliminary results for the catalytic hydropyrolysis of coals, and discuss the results of our evaluation of selected metal colloids in catalytic hydrogenation of pyrene. 9 refs., 3 tabs.