NANOSCALE METAL OXIDES USED AS DEHYDROHALOGENATION
CATALYSTS
1
Ryan M. Richards, 2Ilya Mishakov, 3Vladimir Chesnokov, 4Alexander Volodin, and
5
Kenneth J. Klabunde
1,5
Department of Chemistry, Willard Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66502;
Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Prospekt Lavrentieva 5, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia;
1
Phone: (785) 532-6849, 1E-mail: ryanr@ksu.edu; 2E-mail: ilshik@mail.ru; 4E-mail:
volodin@catalysis nsk su; 5E-mail: kenjk@ksu.edu.
2,3,4
The unique properties and chemistry of metal oxide nanoparticles including
characterization of Lewis acid and base sites using electron paramagnetic resonance
(EPR), structures using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and catalytic properties
have been investigated. These metal oxide nanoparticles have been found to demonstrate
high activity and selectivity for the dehydrochlorination of 1-chlorobutane. The selectivity
towards dehydrochlorination to butylene is much higher for autoclave prepared (AP) MgO
and CaO catalysts than Al2O3. This catalytic activity has been found to increase upon
conversion of the metal oxide catalyst to chloride. Experiments have been expanded in
scope to investigate compressed metal oxide samples, 1-bromobutane catalytic
dehydrohalogenation, and surface area and pore structure analysis, as well as mechanistic
studies.
Key words: nanoparticles, dehydrohalogenation, catalysis, metal oxide