Cyclohexene Reactivity over Palladium Acetate Supported in Liquid Phase

The competitive reactions of cyclohexene: disproportionation and dehydrogenation were studied over a supported-liquid phase catalyst (SLPC) of palladium acetate solved in a stationary phase employing two different techniques: pulsed and flow micro-reactor, where the products of reaction are analysed by gas chromatography. The effect of the liquid phase (comparing an aliphatic phase, squalane, with a polar phase, Triton), the reaction environment (comparing He, N2 and air) and the process conditions (temperature and reactant concentration) have been studied. Although continuous deactivation was observed in all the cases, the catalyst supported on the apolar phase presents better performance, whereas the disproportionation reaction only takes place at no oxidant conditions and the operation conditions only affect to the selectivity of the reaction. A kinetic model for the reaction, taking into account the catalyst deactivation has been proposed, and kinetic and deactivation constant were calculated by fitting the model to the experimental data. Arrhenius parameters were obtained from measured data at several temperatures.