Although several experimental and computational reports on phenol hydrogenation have been published, to our knowledge there are no experimental studies which used calorimetry to explore the thermodynamics and kinetics of this industrially important chemical process. We are using this versatile approach to compare the time-dependence of the evolved heat from the hydrogenation of PhOH or CyO in an aqueous medium using Pd, Pt and Ru catalysts supported on carbon or alumina. In addition, we have performed the experiments at different temperature and pressure along with varying the amount of catalysts and substrates to understand their effects on thermodynamics and kinetics. We found that the enthalpy of hydrogenation of PhOH (ca.-200 kJ/mol) similar for Pd, Pt and Ru catalysts, however, the conversion of PhOH to cyclohexanol (CyOH) with time goes through the CyO intermediate for Pd and its slower than that of Pt and Ru (conversion with time remains similar for Pt and Ru). The details of our calorimetric and in-situ NMR studies for these reactions in various conditions rendering its kinetics and thermodynamics will be presented.

Calorimetry to explore the kinetics and thermodynamics of phenol hydrogenation by heterogeneous metal catalysts

2019 Fall National Meeting

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