Rhodium nanoparticles intercalated into montmorillonite for hydrogenation of aromatic compounds in the presence of thiophene

• Published in: Applied clay science Vol. 42; no. 3; pp. 386 - 390
• Main Authors: Sidhpuria, Kalpesh B., Patel, Hasmukh A., Parikh, Parimal A., Bahadur, Pratap, Bajaj, Hari C., Jasra, Raksh V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Hydrogenation; Mineralogy; Montmorillonite; Nanoparticles; Rhodium; Silicates; Thiophene; Nanoparticles; Thiophene; Rhodium; Montmorillonite; Hydrogenation; naphthalene; metals; concentration; pressure; benzene; smectite; xylene; montmorillonite; substrates; temperature; clay minerals; sheet silicates; silicates; transmission electron microscopy; particles; inductively coupled plasma; crystallites; toluene; rhodium
• ISSN: 0169-1317; 1872-9053
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clay.2008.03.010

Rhodium metal nanoparticles intercalated into montmorillonite (Rh-MMT) have been prepared and used for the hydrogenation of benzene and other aromatic compounds. Rh-MMT was characterized by PXRD, TEM and ICP-AES. The crystallite size of the rhodium particles was 6.9 nm using PXRD and the particle size by TEM was 25.6 ± 2.5 nm. Benzene hydrogenation was carried out at different substrate/catalyst mass ratios, temperature and pressure to optimize the reaction conditions. The benzene is completely hydrogenated with 100% selectivity to cyclohexane at 453 K and 6.2 MPa. The catalyst was poisoned by thiophene, and benzene hydrogenation decreased with increasing thiophene concentration. Hydrogenation of toluene, o, m, p-xylenes, naphthalene and anthracene were also carried out at the optimized reaction conditions.