Ultradispersed diamond as an excellent support for Pd and Au nanoparticle based catalysts for hydrodechlorination and CO oxidation

The present study is aimed at the investigation of the catalytic performance of Pd or Au supported on ultradispersed diamond (UDD) catalysts in reductive and oxidative conditions. Very high catalytic activity of Pd or Au supported on ultradispersed diamond (UDD) was observed, in hydrodechlorination and CO oxidation, respectively. Specifically, Pd/UDD shows remarkable selectivity in the hydrodechlorination of 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene (benzene was the main product already at 30% TCB conversion and became the only product after 30 minutes of the reaction), substantially exceeding the performance of Pd supported on activated carbon and commercial 5% Pd/C references. It is proposed that this behavior is linked to the O-containing functional groups at the UDD surface, as detected via IR and EDX/SEM mapping, combined with a very small (6–7 nm by XRD) particle size of UDD support.

Research highlights► Ultradispersed diamond characterization ► Pd/UDD in trichlorobenzene hydrodechlorination ► Au/UDD in CO oxidation