Characterization and dehydrogenation activity of Cr-added electroless plated copper catalyst

Copper catalysts with chromium addition, prepared by the electroless platin g method, were investigated. Dehydrogenation of n-butanol was conducted to study the effect of chromium addition on the catalysts. Copper loading on g amma -Al2O3 was fixed at 15% and Cr addition varied from 1 to 5%. Experimen tal results show that the copper catalyst activity depends not only on the chromium loading but also on the addition procedure. The catalysts with chr omium addition present higher catalyst activity and lower deactivation rate than the pure one. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show that the addition would increase copper dispersion and hence decrease copper crystallite siz e formed on the support. Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) profiles in dicate that the addition of chromium affects the copper reduction temperatu re. Chromium addition would cause the TPR curve to shift slightly to lower temperature. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.