A Promising Catalyst for the Dehydrogenation of Perhydro-Dibenzyltoluene: Pt/Al2O3 Prepared by Supercritical CO2 Deposition

Pt/Al2O3 catalysts prepared via supercritical deposition (SCD), with CO2, wet impregnation (WI) methods and a selected benchmark catalyst, were evaluated for the dehydrogenation of perhydro-dibenzyltoluene (H18-DBT) at 300 °C in batch reactor. After ten runs, average performance catalyst using SCD was highest compared to WI-prepared catalysts. The pre-treatment product (dibenzyltoluene) indicated that deactivation observed is mainly due adsorbed H0-DBT blocking active sites reactant (H18-DBT). Furthermore, method afforded higher dispersion smaller sized Pt particles, thus improving catalytic towards H18-DBT. particle diameters SCD- varied ranges 0.6–2.2 nm 0.8–3.4 had sizes 1.1 1.7 nm, respectively. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis after runs revealed presence carbon. In this study, improved led production more liquid-based by-products carbon material low performance.