Method of making copper catalyst on a support
AssigneeAmerican Cyanamid Company
InventorKenneth Worden Saunders
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Abstract
In the making of reduced copper catalysts on supports such as alumina, cuprous salts are imbibed as aqueous solution in which solubility of the cuprous salt is increased by the presence of ammonium hydroxide and ammonium carbonate in the solution. The imbibed support is dried and the cuprous salt residue is reduced in situ by aqueous solution of sodium borohydride. The reduced copper catalyst product is useful for catalytic hydration of nitriles to produce amides, e.g. acrylonitrile to acrylamide.
Claims8
In the method of catalyst making which comprises imbibing a catalyst support with aqueous solution of cuprous salt, evaporating the solvent and reducing the residual cuprous salt to elemental copper, the improvement wherein the solvent for the cuprous salt comprises both ammonium carbonate and ammonium hydroxide in combination in aqueous solution and the cuprous salt concentration in the solution is greater than the saturation concentration of the same cuprous salt in water alone or in a solution with either of the ammonium hydroxide or ammonium carbonate cosolvents used alone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.