Some features of acetylene hydrogenation on Au-iron oxide catalyst

Abstract Hydrogenation of acetylene has been investigated on Au-iron oxide catalysts containing 4.5, 3.0, 5.6 wt% Au prepared by deposition–precipitation (DP) with urea, adsorption of Au sol (SA) and by co-precipitation (CP) of HAuCl 4 and Fe(NO 3 ) 3 , respectively. The latter method produced Au particles supported on 2-line ferrihydrite (Fe 5 HO 8 ·4H 2 O). Au/iron oxide catalyst precursors (Au/α-Fe 2 O 3 and Au/2-line ferrihydrite) were characterized by BET, TGA, TPR and XRD, and the Au particle size by TEM measurements. The TPR measurements confirm the ease of transformation of 2-line ferrihydrite to magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) and that the formation of magnetite from α-Fe 2 O 3 depends strongly on the size of the gold and the supporting oxide particles. Particle size effect of gold has been investigated in semi-hydrogenation of acetylene. Temperature of hydrogen treatment has been observed to play a crucial role in the activity and ethylene selectivity. Au/FeO x samples hydrogen treated at 353–473 K prior to introduction of the reactants (H 2 :C 2 H 2  = 140, 0.11% C 2 H 2 ) show very limited over-hydrogenation (ethane formation is less than ≈1%) and 2–4% selectivity of oligomer (C4+) formation at 353–473 K. Hydrogen treatment of the samples at T  > 573 K but lower than the wustite (FeO) stability point (≈843 K) resulted in partial reduction of Fe 3 O 4 and formation of Fe 0 . The shift of Au(1 1 1) XRD line to higher 2 Θ provided evidence for the incorporation of Fe 0 into the Au particles. Modification of the Au/Fe 2 O 3 perimeter and appearance of Fe 0 co-catalyst and Fe–Au ensembles on the surface increased the hydrogenation activity but decreased the selectivity of ethylene formation.