The development of a high throughput reactor for the catalytic screening of three phase reactions

The design and utilisation of a reactor for the optimisation of multiple he terogeneous catalytic reactions in liquid phase is described. With the abil ity to screen up to 25 samples simultaneously at a maximum pressure of 50 b ar, the reactor is one of the first to be designed specifically for what is termed stage H, the optimisation phase, of catalytic high throughput exper imentation (HTE). Experiments demonstrating the reliability and reproducibi lity of the reactor are described, including the use of the reactor to stud y the catalytic hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde (CrAld) over bimetallic sam ples based on a commercial 5 wt.% Pt on activated carbon catalyst. Modifica tion of the mono-metallic Pt sample by the impregnation of aqueous metal sa lts and various pre-treatments, resulted in 140 bimetallic catalysts that w ere used in the hydrogenation study. The changes observed in both selectivi ty and reactivity of the modified catalysts are described and show, by way of example, how the speed of catalyst screening can be increased by at leas t an order of magnitude. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved .