Ammonia synthesis over Ru/C catalysts with different carbon supports promoted by barium and potassium compounds

Ammonia synthesis over ruthenium catalysts supported on different carbon materials using Ba or K compounds as promoters has been investigated. Ba(NO3)(2), KOH, and KNO3 are used as the promoter or promoter precursor, and activated carbon (AC), activated carbon fiber (ACF). and carbon molecular sieve (CMS) are used as the support. The activity measurement for ammonia synthesis was carried out in a flow micro-reactor under mild conditions: 350-450 degreesC and 3.0 MPa. Results show that KOH promoter was more effective than KNO3. and that Ba(NO3)(2) was the most effective promoter among the three. The roles of promoters can be divided into the electronic modification of ruthenium, the neutralization of surface functional groups on the carbon support and the ruthenium precursor. The catalyst with AC as the support gave the highest ammonia concentration in the effluent among the supports used, while the catalyst with ACF as the support showed the highest turnover-frequency (TOF) value. It seems that the larger particles of Ru on the carbon supports are more active for ammonia synthesis in terms of TOF value. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Analysis of phenols by high-performance liquid chromatography with pre-column derivatization by 2-(9-carbazole)-ethyl-chloroformate

2-(9-Carbazole)-ethyl-chloroformate (CEOC), a novel pre-column fluorescence labeling reagent, has been synthesized and applied for the derivatization of phenols. Taken phenol, p-chlorophenol, 2,5-dimethylphenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol and 1,4-dihydroxybenzene as testing standards, the effects of derivatization conditions, such as pH of borate buffer, reaction time and fluorescent tagging reagent concentration, have been systematically studied. Under the optimized conditions, CEOC reacts readily with the phenols to form stable derivatives with excitation and emission wavelengths, respectively, at 293 and 360 nm. The single step derivatization reaction could be finished within 20 min even at room temperature. Such a method has been successfully applied to the analysis of phenols in printing ink by high-performance liquid chromatography. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Butene catalytic cracking to propene and ethene over potassium modified ZSM-5 catalysts

Catalytic cracking of butene over potassium modified ZSM-5 catalysts was carried out in a fixed-bed microreactor. By increasing the K loading on the ZSM-5, butene conversion and ethene selectivity decreased almost linearly, while propene selectivity increased first, then passed through a maximum (about 50% selectivity) with the addition of ca. 0.7-1.0% K, and then decreased slowly with further increasing of the K loading. The reaction conditions were 620 degrees C, WHSV 3.5 h(-1), 0.1 MPa 1-butene partial pressure and 1 h of time on stream. Both by potassium modification of the ZSM-5 zeolite and by N(2) addition in the butene feed could enhance the selectivity towards propene effectively, but the catalyst stability did not show any improvement. On the other hand, addition of water to the butene feed could not only increase the butene conversion, but also improve the stability of the 0.7%K/ZSM-5 catalyst due to the effective removal of the coke formed, as demonstrated by the TPO spectra. XRD results indicated that the ZSM-5 structure of the 0.07% K/ZSM-5 catalyst was not destroyed even under this serious condition of adding water at 620 degrees C.