Vapor-phase self-aldol condensation of butanal over Ag-modified TiO2

• Ag-modified TiO2 was found to be efficient for stabilizing the catalytic activity.
• The loading of Ag2O on TiO2 can inhibit carbon deposition onto the catalyst surface.
• H2 carrier gas was indispensable for stabilizing the catalytic activity together with Ag.

Vapor-phase self-aldol condensation of butanal was performed over various solid catalysts. Among the tested catalysts, SiO2-Al2O3, Nb2O5 and TiO2 showed relatively high catalytic activity for the formation of aldol condensation product, 2-ethyl-2-hexenal, whereas all the catalysts deactivated rapidly. In order to stabilize the catalytic activity, metal-modified catalysts were investigated in hydrogen flow, and it was found that Ag-modified TiO2 showed the best catalytic performance. Characterizations such as XRD, TPD, TPR, TG-DTA, and DRIFT were performed for investigating the effect of the additive Ag and analyzing the coke component. The loaded Ag metal inhibited the formation of carbon accumulated on catalyst surface, and H2 carrier gas was indispensable in the inhibition. Ag would work as a remover of the products on the catalyst surface together with H2 to prevent dehydrogenation followed by coke formation. Self-aldol condensation of butanal was stabilized over Ag-modified TiO2 at Ag2O loadings higher than 3 wt.% at 220 °C in H2 flow. TiO2 with Ag2O of 5 wt.% showed the best catalytic performance and gave a 72.2% selectivity to 2-ethyl-2-hexenal at 72.1% conversion in H2 flow at 220 °C.

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