Rh-based catalysts supported on MCM-41-type mesoporous silica for dicyclopentadiene hydroformylation

• Mesoporous silica was used as catalyst support for hydroformylation of DCPD.
• Co modified Rh-based catalysts achieved DFTD selectivity of 87.3%.
• Co addition was found to alter the electronics of Rh as revealed by XPS, TPD and TPR.

Impregnation method was used in this study to prepare five different Rh based catalysts supported on MCM-type mesoporous silica materials. These catalysts were evaluated based on their performance for the hydroformylation of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) to produce diformyltricyclodecanes (DFTD). While a selectivity of DFTD was only 8.7% using monometallic Rh/MCM-41 as catalyst, the selectivity was enhanced to 76.2% at a similar DCPD conversion using bimetallic Co–Rh/MCM-41 catalyst, even when the Co loading was very low(25 mol% relative to Rh). Extensive catalyst characterization including TPR, TPD, XRD, XPS, BET and TEM was performed to study the nature of metal modification on Rh/MCM-41. It was found that modification on the Rh/MCM-41 by Co addition could substantially enhance the selectivity towards DFTD. This improvement was likely attributed to the formation of a more reactive Rh species on the catalyst surface.

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