Issue 17, 2017

Effect of hierarchical meso–macroporous structures on the catalytic performance of silica supported cobalt catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

Abstract

A series of meso–macroporous silica supports with the same macroporous diameter but different mesoporous diameters were prepared by introducing phase separation into a sol–gel process and used to prepare cobalt catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. The mesoporous diameter could be controlled in the range 6.5–35.0 nm while the macroporous diameter was kept at approximately 500 nm. The mesoporous porosity of the meso–macroporous silica supports greatly influenced the size, reducibility and dispersion of cobalt nanoparticles, and therefore resulted in different catalytic performances for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. The meso–macroporous catalyst with an appropriate mesoporous size of 8.5 nm displayed a higher catalytic activity due to the best combination of the Co dispersion and reduction degree. The product distribution strongly depended on the mesoporous diameter due to the following two reasons: 1) the difference in the H2/CO ratio on the active sites due to the diffusional limitations of CO in the mesopores; 2) the Co crystallite size effect. In addition, large pellet catalysts (800–1700 μm) exhibited similar product distributions to small pellet catalysts (180–250 μm), which indicated that the macropores played an important role in reducing internal diffusion limitations for large pellet catalysts.

Graphical abstract: Effect of hierarchical meso–macroporous structures on the catalytic performance of silica supported cobalt catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jun 2017
Accepted
19 Jul 2017
First published
20 Jul 2017

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2017,7, 3812-3822

Effect of hierarchical meso–macroporous structures on the catalytic performance of silica supported cobalt catalysts for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

H. Li, B. Hou, J. Wang, X. Huang, C. Chen, Z. Ma, J. Cui, L. Jia, D. Sun and D. Li, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2017, 7, 3812 DOI: 10.1039/C7CY01180F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements