Ethylene, a basic raw material for the petrochemical industry is used for production of polyethylene, PVC, acetic acid and other polymers and organic substances. It is produced by high-temperature pyrolysis of naphtha which is a product of petroleum refining. An alternative is the pyrolysis of methane (the main component of natural gas), which produces acetylene – a colorless gas – the hydrogenation of which produces polyethylene. To accelerate the reaction of acetylene hydrogenation, palladium deposited on various porous materials is used: such a catalyst demonstrates high activity but it is distinguished by low selectivity, i.e. low ability to increase the target reaction rate in the presence of several side reactions.
It is silver that is usually used to increase the palladium catalyst selectivity. However, the scientists from the Center for New Chemical Technologies modified the catalyst with cobalt, a more readily available metal. “They synthesized a series of catalysts whose active component was the applied bimetallic palladium-and-cobalt based nanoparticles. “We were able to find a relationship between the composition of such particles and the yield of the target product; this allowed us to establish an optimal formulation for the catalyst synthesis,” the Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences quotes Daria Yurpalova, Ph.D. in chemical sciences.
As a catalyst carrier, the authors used Sibunite, mesoporous high-strength material on the surface of which there are no undesirable active centers able to reduce the selectivity of the process. The use of this material will facilitate the commercialization of the new bimetallic catalyst.
