Metal size effects over metal/zeolite bifunctional catalysts in the selective hydroalkylation of benzene

Abstract

Bifunctional metal/zeolite materials are some of the most suitable catalysts for the direct hydroalkylation of benzene to cyclohexylbenzene. The overall catalytic performance of this reaction is strongly influenced by the hydrogenation, which is dependent on the metal sizes. Thus, systematically investigating the metal size effects in the hydroalkylation of benzene is essential. In this work, we successfully synthesized Ru and Pd nanoparticles on Sinopec Composition Materials No.1 zeolite with various metal sizes. We demonstrated the size-dependent catalytic activity of zeolite-supported Ru and Pd catalysts in the hydroalkylation of benzene, which can be attributed to the size-induced hydrogen spillover capability differences. Our work presents new insights into the hydroalkylation reaction and may open up a new avenue for the smart design of advanced metal/zeolite bi-functional catalysts.

Key words： size effects; bifunctional catalysts; metal/zeolite; hydroalkylation

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by China Petrochemical Corporation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U19B6002, 21972168, and 22302234).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-024-2406-4 and is accessible for authorized users.

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