Rhodium nanoparticles intercalated into montmorillonite for hydrogenation of aromatic compounds in the presence of thiophene

Rhodium metal nanoparticles intercalated into montmorillonite (Rh-MMT) have been prepared and used for the hydrogenation of benzene and other aromatic compounds. Rh-MMT was characterized by PXRD, TEM and ICP-AES. The crystallite size of the rhodium particles was 6.9 nm using PXRD and the particle size by TEM was 25.6 ± 2.5 nm. Benzene hydrogenation was carried out at different substrate/catalyst mass ratios, temperature and pressure to optimize the reaction conditions. The benzene is completely hydrogenated with 100% selectivity to cyclohexane at 453 K and 6.2 MPa. The catalyst was poisoned by thiophene, and benzene hydrogenation decreased with increasing thiophene concentration. Hydrogenation of toluene, o,m,p-xylenes, naphthalene and anthracene were also carried out at the optimized reaction conditions.