Development of Non-Noble Metal Ni-Based Catalysts for Dehydrogenation of Methylcyclohexane
Type
DissertationAuthors
Shaikh Ali, Anaam
Advisors
Takanabe, Kazuhiro
Committee members
Cavallo, Luigi
Da Costa, Pedro M. F. J.

Seshan, Kulathuiyer
Program
Chemical ScienceKAUST Department
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) DivisionDate
2016-11-30Embargo End Date
2017-12-05Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/621931
Metadata
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At the time of archiving, the student author of this dissertation opted to temporarily restrict access to it. The full text of this dissertation became available to the public after the expiration of the embargo on 2017-12-05.Abstract
Liquid organic chemical hydride is a promising candidate for hydrogen storage and transport. Methylcyclohexane (MCH) to toluene (TOL) cycle has been considered as one of the feasible hydrogen carrier systems, but selective dehydrogenation of MCH to TOL has only been achieved using the noble Pt-based catalysts. The aim of this study is to develop non-noble, cost-effective metal catalysts that can show excellent catalytic performance, mainly maintaining high TOL selectivity achievable by Pt based catalysts. Mono-metallic Ni based catalyst is a well-known dehydrogenation catalyst, but the major drawback with Ni is its hydrogenolysis activity to cleave C-C bonds, which leads to inferior selectivity towards dehydrogenation of MCH to TOL. This study elucidate addition of the second metal to Ni based catalyst to improve the TOL selectivity. Herein, ubiquitous bi-metallic nanoparticles catalysts were investigated including (Ni–M, M: Ag, Zn, Sn or In) based catalysts. Among the catalysts investigated, the high TOL selectivity (> 99%) at low conversions was achieved effectively using the supported NiZn catalyst under flow of excess H2. In this work, a combined study of experimental and computational approaches was conducted to determine the main role of Zn over Ni based catalyst in promoting the TOL selectivity. A kinetic study using mono- and bimetallic Ni based catalysts was conducted to elucidate reaction mechanism and site requirement for MCH dehydrogenation reaction. The impact of different reaction conditions (feed compositions, temperature, space velocity and stability) and catalyst properties were evaluated. This study elucidates a distinctive mechanism of MCH dehydrogenation to TOL reaction over the Ni-based catalysts. Distinctive from Pt catalyst, a nearly positive half order with respect to H2 pressure was obtained for mono- and bi-metallic Ni based catalysts. This kinetic data was consistent with rate determining step as (somewhat paradoxically) hydrogenation of strongly chemisorbed intermediate originating from TOL. DFT calculation indicated that Zn metal prefers to occupy the step sites of Ni where unselective C–C bond breaking was considered to preferentially occur, explaining suppression of hydrogenolysis activity. Additionally, it confirmed that the H-deficient species at methyl position group (C6H5CH2) was stable on the surface, making its hydrogenation being rate determining step, consistent with positive order in H2 pressure on TOL formation rate. This may explain the conclusive role by H2 in facilitating desorption of the H-deficient surface species that was produced through further dehydrogenation of TOL.Citation
Shaikh Ali, A. (2016). Development of Non-Noble Metal Ni-Based Catalysts for Dehydrogenation of Methylcyclohexane. KAUST Research Repository. https://doi.org/10.25781/KAUST-71W2Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.25781/KAUST-71W2X