Regeneration of deactivated catalysts coated on foam and monolith: Example of Pd/C for nitrobenzene hydrogenation

The deactivation and regeneration of Pd/carbon coated support catalysts, used during nitrobenzene hydrogenation, were studied. Three methods have been tested: electrochemical treatment, chemical oxidation and oxygen plasma treatment. The regenerated catalysts were characterized by physisorption of nitrogen (BET method) and were compared with the activities of fresh catalysts. It was found that the electrochemical treatment allows the complete regeneration of the catalyst, without any modification of textural properties. Simple chemical oxidation did not allow the activity recovery of Pd catalysts and led to modification of the textural properties of carbon. Finally, the catalyst may be regenerated also by plasma method, albeit with some increase of the pore diameter.

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► Simple methods to regenerate the used Pd/carbon-coated catalysts are described.
► Three methods have been tested: electrochemical, oxidation and oxygen plasma.
► The electrochemical treatment allows the complete regeneration of the Pd/C catalyst.
► Complete recovery of initial activities for nitrobenzene hydrogenation is obtained.
► No modification and no degradation of the textural properties of carbon are observed.