Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous alumina as a catalyst support for hydrodechlorination of 1,2-dichloropropane: effect of catalyst preparation method

A mesoporous alumina was synthesized by a posthydrolysis method. The prepared mesoporous alumina was found to have randomly ordered pores, and retained relatively high surface area with narrow pore size distribution centered at ca. 4 nm. Nickel precursors were then supported on the mesoporous alumina by an impregnation (Ni-IMP) and vapor deposition (Ni-VD) method. Several characterizations were carried out in order to investigate physical and chemical properties of mesoporous alumina and supported Ni catalysts. TPR, XPS, and UV-DRS measurements revealed that the Ni-IMP catalyst retained much more amounts of surface nickel aluminate-like species than the Ni-VD sample. TPD experiments also showed that nickel aluminate species affected the adsorption amounts of reactant (1,2-dichloropropane). In the hydrodechlorination of 1,2-dichloropropane (DCPA), DCPA conversion over the Ni-VD catalyst was about two times higher than that over the Ni-IMP catalyst at 300 °C. It is probably due to the fact that the Ni-VD catalyst, which had low contents of nickel aluminate species compared to the Ni-IMP catalyst, exhibited higher degree of reduction than the Ni-IMP catalyst at pretreatment conditions. The difference in DCPA conversion between two catalysts was closely related to the degree of reduction of nickel species and the amounts of adsorption of DCPA onto the catalyst as well.