Deactivation of a commercial catalyst in the epoxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide—basis for accelerated testing

Ca-Ag compounds in ethylene epoxidation reaction

The ethylene epoxidation is a challenging catalytic process, and development of active and selective catalyst requires profound understanding of its chemical behaviour under reaction conditions. The systematic study on intermetallic compounds in the Ca-Ag system under ethylene epoxidation conditions clearly shows that the character of the oxidation processes on the surface originates from the atomic interactions in the pristine compound. The Ag-rich compounds Ca₂Ag₇ and CaAg₂ undergo oxidation towards fcc Ag and a complex Ca-based support, whereas equiatomic CaAg and the Ca-rich compounds Ca₅Ag₃ and Ca₃Ag in bulk remain stable under harsh ethylene epoxidation conditions. For the latter presence of water vapour in the gas stream leads to noticeable corrosion. Combining the experimental results with the chemical bonding analysis and first-principles calculations, the relationships among the chemical nature of the compounds, their reactivity and catalytic performance towards epoxidation of ethylene are investigated.

Reversible Restructuring of Silver Particles during Ethylene Epoxidation

The restructuring of a silver catalyst during ethylene epoxidation under industrially relevant conditions was investigated without and with vinyl chloride (VC) promotion. During non-VC-promoted ethylene epoxidation, the silver particles grow and voids are formed at the surface and in the bulk. Electron tomography highlighted the presence of voids below the Ag surface. A mechanism is proposed involving reconstruction of the silver lattice and defect sites induced by oxygen adsorption on the external surface and grain boundaries, which finally create pores. Promotion of the catalytic reaction by VC suppresses to a significant extent void formation. The use of VC also redisperses silver particles, initially grown during ethylene epoxidation without VC. This process is rapid as the average size decreased from 172 to 136 nm within 2 h. These insights emphasize the dynamic nature of the silver particles during the ongoing ethylene epoxidation reaction and indicate that particle size and morphology strongly depend on reaction conditions.

A new bio-inspired route to metal-nanoparticle-based heterogeneous catalysts

Onion-type multilamellar vesicles are made of concentric bilayers of organic surfactant and are mainly known for their potential applications in biotechnology. They can be used as microreactors for the spontaneous and controlled production of metal nanoparticles. This process does not require any thermal treatment and, hence, it is also attractive for material sciences such as heterogeneous catalysis. In this paper, silver-nanoparticle-based catalysts are prepared by transferring onion-grown silver nanoparticles onto inorganic supports. The resulting materials are active in the total oxidation of benzene, attesting that this novel bio-inspired concept is promising in inorganic catalysis.