Process for preparing carboxylic acid salts and catalysts useful in such process

In a method of preparing a carboxylic acid salt by the reaction of a primary alcohol with a hydroxide base in the presence of a supported catalyst, the improvement characterized by employing a catalytic amount of a supported catalyst comprising a finely divided platinum metal partially embedded on an activated carbon support, at least some of the nonembedded surface of the platinum metal having thereon a layer of copper metal in elemental form.

In a method of preparing a carboxylic acid salt by dehydrogenation of an amino primary alcohol with a hydroxide base in the presence of a catalyst, the improvement characterized by employing a catalytic amount of a supported catalyst comprising a finely divided anchor metal partially embedded on an alkali resistant support, the nonembedded surface being coated with a catalytically active layer of a metal selected from copper, cobalt, nickel, cadmium or mixture thereof, in elemental state.

In a method of preparing a carboxylic acid salt by reacting a primary alcohol with a hydroxide base in the presence of a catalyst, the improvement characterized by employing a catalytic amount of a supported catalyst consisting essentially of:

• (a) an alkali resistant support;
• (b) a plurality of noble metal particles dispersed and partially embedded in said support, the non-embedded portions of said particles having non-embedded surfaces, said noble metal as said surfaces being in elemental form;
• (c) a coating of a base metal selected from the group of copper, cobalt, nickel, cadmium, or mixtures thereof, said base metal being in elemental form, said coating being attached to and covering at least some of the non-embedded surfaces of said noble metal particles, said coating having an outside catalytically active surface.

In a method of preparing a carboxylic acid salt by reacting a primary alcohol with a hydroxide in the presence of a catalyst, the improvement characterized by employing a catalytic amount of a support catalyst comprising a finally divided anchor metal partially embedded in an alkali resistant support, the anchor metal comprising from about 0.1 to about 5 weight percent of the supported catalyst, the non-embedded portions of the anchor metal having a non-embedded surface, at least some of the nonembedded surface of the anchor metal having thereon a layer of a catalytically active metal selected from the group of copper, cobalt, nickel, cadmium and mixture thereof, in the elemental state, the catalytically active metal comprising from about 1 to about 50 weight percent of the supported catalyst, the catalyst having an XPS surface atomic ratio of the catalytically active metal to the anchor metal and the XPS surface atomic ratio of the catalytically active metal to the anchor metal being greater than 2.0, the layer of the catalytically active metal having a thickness in the range from 1 to 5 nanometers, the average crystallite size of the catalytically active metal being less than about 500 Angstroms.

In a method of preparing a carboxylic acid salt by reacting a primary alcohol with a hydroxide in the presence of a catalyst, the improvement characterized by employing a catalytic amount of a support catalyst comprising a finally divided anchor metal partially embedded in an alkali resistant support, the anchor metal comprising from about 0.1 to about 5 weight percent of the supported catalyst, the non-embedded portions of the anchor metal having a non-embedded surface, at least some of the nonembedded surface of the anchor metal having thereon a layer of a catalytically active metal selected from the group of copper, cobalt, nickel, cadmium and mixture thereof, in the elemental state, the catalytically active metal comprising from about 1 to about 50 weight percent of the supported catalyst, the catalyst having an XPS surface atomic ratio of the catalytically active metal to the anchor metal and having a corresponding bulk atomic ratio and wherein the XPS surface atomic ratio of the catalytically active metal to the anchor metal being greater than the corresponding bulk atomic ratio, the layer of the catalytically active metal having a thickness in the range from 0.3 to 500 nanometers, the average crystallite size of the catalytically active metal being less than about 500 Angstroms.