Dr. Igor Bychko

L. V. Pisarzhevskii Institute of Physical Chemistry

Postdoc

Chemistry, Catalysis, Chemical kinetics

Presenting about:

Catalytic properties of carbon nanomaterials in hydrogenation reactions by molecular hydrogen

Abstract: The main scientific field is focused on the determination of the nature of catalytic activity of carbon nanomaterials in the hydrogenation reactions of organic compounds by molecular hydrogen. To achieve this goal such issues as determination of the structure of the adsorption sites of hydrogen and organic compounds, structure of active site, reaction mechanism and influence of the structure of carbon nanomaterials on the kinetics of hydrogenation reactions.

The reaction of ethylene hydrogenation as simple and model gas-phase reaction is mainly used as instrument to establish a parameters of the hydrogenation reactions. The multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was used as catalysts. In typical case, reaction was carried in the flow reactor at atmospheric pressure using pure gases (99.9999%). Additionally catalytic activity of CNTs and rGO was shown in the acetylene hydrogenation and selective hydrogenation of nitrocompounds to corresponding aminocompounds in the liquid phase.

At past decade several studies dedicated to the carbon nanomaterials catalytic activity in the hydrogenation reactions have been reported. It was proposed a few different mechanisms of this reaction. However the structure of catalytic active sites on the surface of the carbon nanomaterials in the hydrogenation reaction is still an open problem. It was shown that H2 activation can take place at the carbon atom vacancies. A possibility of H2 activation by frustrated Lewis pairs on the carbons surface has been also discussed. Recently, it has been indicated an activation via the π-π interaction for aromatic compounds.

Our experiments indicate an extremely high stability of CNT in a comparison with the typical hydrogenation catalysts in both, hydrogen-rich and ethylene-rich, atmospheres. This offers new opportunities for the CNT-based catalysts application in the hydrogenation reaction at high temperatures, in particular, under conditions when the metal-containing catalysts deactivate due to the carbonaceous deposits formation.