The hydrogenation of isophthalonitrile (IPN) to meta-xylylenediamine (m-XDA) is usually catalyzed by metallic catalysts. Condensation reactions between amines and imines are the dominant side reactions. The nature of metal was crucial to the catalytic performance. Among the metal catalysts, Ni is most selective to primary amines and is widely used in industrial production. Adding a second metal component, such as Co, Fe, Cu, Pt and Ru, can affect the catalytic performance by synergy effects. This work studied the effects of adding a second metal to the γ-Al2O3 supported Ni catalyst on the hydrogenation of IPN to m-XDA. The xNi/γ-Al2O3 monometallic and xNi-yM/γ-Al2O3 bimetallic catalysts (x, y are the Ni and M loading in wt%, respectively, x/y = 4, and M = Co, Fe, Cu) with loadings of x = 5 and 20 were prepared by incipient wetness co-impregnation. The acidity of the xNi/γ-Al2O3 and xNi-yM/γ-Al2O3 catalysts showed similar trends with increasing metal loadings, indicating similar metal-support interactions. The catalytic results of 5Ni/γ-Al2O3 and 5Ni-1.25M/γ-Al2O3 are shown in Fig. 1. The addition of Cu to the Ni catalyst enhanced the catalytic activity while maintain similar selectivity to m-XDA. In contrast, the addition of Co increased the m-XDA selectivity but decreased the activity. The addition of Fe showed the best promoting effects both in catalytic activity and m-XDA selectivity. The effects of adding a second metal were further confirmed by the results of 20Ni/γ-Al2O3 and 20Ni-5M/γ-Al2O3. The superiority of 20Ni-5Fe/γ-Al2O3 was in consistent with 5Ni-1.25Fe/γ-Al2O3. Compared with 20Ni/γ-Al2O3, the optimal catalyst 20Ni-5Fe/γ-Al2O3 showed 80% increase in the activity and enhanced the m-XDA selectivity from 91% to 97%.

Catalytic hydrogenation of isophthalonitrile (IPN) over supported monometallic and bimetallic Ni catalysts

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.