With the increased interest in biomass reforming, catalyst stability in hot liquid water is becoming an important issue.  Acid-functionalized activated carbons are promising catalysts for biomass conversion.  In this work, their stability in liquid water at 200�C and 17bar is evaluated.  Exposure of acidified activated carbons to hot liquid water greatly decreases the concentration of both surface acidic and basic sites, as measured by Boehm titration.  Carbons acidified with H2SO4 and HNO3- retained the most acidity under these conditions.  FT-IR spectroscopy and TPD-MS indicate that acidification with H2SO4 imparts a large amount of surface sulfur groups on the carbon, many of which are converted to stable sulfonic acid groups upon exposure to the hot liquid water.  Boehm titration indicates that the carbon acidified with HNO3 also retains a considerable amount of acid groups, which are tentatively attributed to lactonic and phenolic structures.

Stability of acid-functionalized activated carbons in hot liquid water

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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