Methods for manufacturing supported catalyst from a porous support and a nanocatalyst solution
AssigneeHeadwaters Technology Innovation, LLC
InventorsZhenhua Zhou, Zhihua Wu, Bing Zhou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Supported catalysts are manufactured from a pretreated porous support material and a nanocatalyst solution of catalyst nanoparticles. The porous support material is pre-treated with a gaseous solvent (e.g., steam or alcohol) to protect the support material from cracking during impregnation of the nanocatalyst solution. The supported catalysts have more uniform size, lower attrition of metals during manufacturing and use, and improved distributions of metal loading compared to catalysts manufactured using known techniques. Hydrogen peroxide manufactured from such catalysts is less likely to be contaminated with catalyst metal.
Claims20
A method for manufacturing a supported nanocatalyst, comprising,
- (i) exposing a porous support material to a gaseous solvent at a concentration that exceeds atmospheric concentration in order for the gaseous solvent to be absorbed into the pores of the support material without causing substantial cracking of the porous support material;
- (ii) preparing a nanocatalyst solution by mixing a liquid solvent, a plurality of catalyst atoms, and a plurality of control agent molecules, reacting the plurality of catalyst atoms with the plurality of control agent molecules to form complexed catalyst atoms, and allowing or causing the complexed catalyst atoms to form a plurality of nanoparticles;
- and
- (iii) impregnating the porous support material with the nanocatalyst solution while at least a portion of the gaseous solvent is still present in the pores of the support material, thereby yielding a supported catalyst.
A method for manufacturing a supported nanocatalyst, comprising:
- (i) providing a porous support material;
- (ii) pretreating the porous support material by exposing the porous support material to steam in an amount sufficient to substantially prevent cracking when the support material is exposed to an aqueous solvent;
- (iii) providing a colloidal suspension comprising a plurality of catalyst nanoparticles suspended in an aqueous solvent, the suspension comprising an organic control agent and the catalyst nanoparticles being comprised of at least one noble metal;
- and
- (iv) impregnating the pretreated silica gel support with the colloidal suspension to yield a supported catalyst.
A method for using a supported catalyst to manufacture hydrogen peroxide, comprising:
- (a) providing a supported catalyst manufactured using the process of,
- (i) pretreating a porous catalyst support material in a gaseous solvent;
- (ii) preparing a colloidal suspension by mixing a liquid solvent, a plurality of catalyst atoms, and a plurality of control agent molecules so as to react the plurality of catalyst atoms with the plurality of control agent molecules to form complexed catalyst atoms;
- and
- (iii) allowing or causing the complexed catalyst atoms to form a plurality of nanoparticles;
- and
- (iv) impregnating the pretreating silica gel support with the colloidal suspension to yield a supported catalyst;
- (b) placing the supported catalyst in a reactor;
- and
- (c) introducing a hydrogen feedstream and an oxygen feedstream into the reactor under conditions suitable for catalyzing the production of hydrogen peroxide using the supported catalyst.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.