Yttrium chloride-modified Au/AC catalysts for acetylene hydrochlorination with improved activity and stability

• Published in: Journal of rare earths Vol. 35; no. 11; pp. 1083 - 1091
• Main Authors: Ke, Jinhuo, Zhao, Yuxin, Yin, Yan, Chen, Kun, Duan, Xinping, Ye, Linmin, Yuan, Youzhu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Acetylene; Acetylene hydrochlorination; catalyst; earths; effect; Electronic; Electronic effect; Gold; Gold catalyst; Heavy; Heavy rare earths; hydrochlorination; Promoting; Promoting effect; rare; Yttrium; Acetylene hydrochlorination; Promoting effect; Heavy rare earths; Gold catalyst; Electronic effect; Yttrium
• ISSN: 1002-0721; 2509-4963
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jre.2017.04.008

The addition of yttrium chloride （YC13） to an activated carbon-supported Au catalyst （AuIAC） canmarkedly promote the catalytic performance of acetylene hydrochlorination to the vinyl chloridemonomer （VCM）. The structure and physicochemical features of the YCl3-modified catalysts （Y-Au/AC）were measured by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, temperature-programmedreduction, C2H2-temperature programmed desorption, and scanning transmission electron microscopy.The presence of YCI3 was found suppressing the reduction of highly oxidized Au^δ＋ （δ= 1, 3） to metallic Au^0 dependently and thus retard the agglomeration of Au nanoparticles during the reaction. In addition,the additive of YC13 to the Au/AC catalyst greatly inhibits the coke deposition on the catalyst surface. Theoptimized catalyst with an atomic ratio of Y/Au = 5 （1 wt% Au loading weight） yields an 87.8% acetyleneconversion and almost 100% selectivity for VCM under the reaction of GHSV（C2H2） = 800 h-1 at 180℃.The durability test indicates that the 5Y-1Au/AC catalyst maintains high catalytic activity for more than2300 h at 30 h-1 GHSV（C2H2） and 180℃, indicating great promise as a non-mercury catalyst for PVCmanufacture.