Deep Hydrogenation Saturation of Naphthalene Facilitated by Enhanced Adsorption of the Reactants on Micro‐Mesoporous Pd/HY.

Deep hydrogenation saturation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is of great importance for the production of valuable chemical products, but is hard due to the presence of hardly broken π bond. In this work, micro‐mesoporous HY supported Pd catalysts (Pd/HY‐a) have been prepared by a simple impregnation method following alkali treatment of pristine HY zeolite, which exhibited superior performance for the deep hydrogenation saturation of naphthalene. Pd/HY‐a was systematically characterized and compared with the Pd catalysts supported on pristine HY, ZSM‐5, SBA‐15, and Al2O3. In Pd/HY‐a, abundant mesoporous pore channels together with suitable B acid sites greatly facilitate the adsorption of the reactants (naphthalene and tetralin) and properly tune the electron state of loaded Pd. Therefore, efficient deep hydrogenation saturation of naphthalene has been achieved on Pd/HY‐a. Moreover, the kinetic behaviors of naphthalene hydrogenation on Pd/HY‐a were preliminarily investigated, in which the first‐order kinetic model fitted the experimental data well in the early reaction stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]