Finely-dispersed Ni/Cu catalysts supported on mesoporous silica for the hydrodechlorination of chlorinated hydrocarbons

Ni/Cu and Ni catalysts supported on the mesoporous silica were prepared via grafting, metal adsorption and calcination steps. The prepared catalyst was characterized using XRD, TEM, N₂ sorption, and SAXS. Pore structure of the support was maintained throughout the preparation procedures. In addition, no specific metal particle image was appeared in XRD, because the metal particles are highly dispersed in the support as a very small size. Hydrodechlorination of TCEa (Trichloroethane) was selected as a model system to test the catalytic activity and selectivity to VCM. The activity of Ni/Cu-E-SBA is higher than that of Ni-E-SBA. The decrease in activity of Ni/Cu-E-SBA was much slow, because copper was added in the Ni catalyst. Cu may plays an important role to retard the deactivation by, such as coking. Further research is on progress. 97% selectivity to VCM was achieved after about 600min on Ni/Cu-E-SBA catalyst.