Direct epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide on various catalytic systems: A combinatorial micro-reactor study

• Promoted bimetallic catalysts were tested in propylene epoxidation.
• 2Cu/5Ru/NaCl/SiO2 catalyst yielded high PO selectivity with high conversion.
• NaCl promotion alters the electronic structure, improving PO selectivity.

A combinatorial approach is used to investigate several bimetallic catalytic systems and the promoter effect on these catalysts to develop highly active and selective catalysts for direct epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide (PO) using molecular oxygen. 2%Cu/5%Ru/c-SiO2 catalyst yielded the highest performance with high propylene conversion and PO selectivity among the bimetallic catalytic systems including silver, ruthenium, manganese and copper metals. On the other hand, the most effective catalyst and promoter in the epoxidation reaction was determined to be sodium chloride promoted Cu–Ru catalyst supported over SiO2 with 36% selectivity & 9.6% conversion (3.46% yield) at 300 °C and 0.5 feed gas ratio (propylene/oxygen).

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