Promoting effect of Ir on the catalytic property of Ru/ZnO catalysts for selective hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde

A series of ZnO supported Ru–Ir bimetal catalysts were prepared and tested for vapor-phase selective hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde. The addition of Ir could effectively promote the catalytic performance, especially the catalyst stability. A Ru–0.5Ir/ZnO catalyst showed the highest activity (a conversion of 63.3%) and selectivity to crotyl alcohol (94.4%) after 30 h reaction. The enhanced stability was attributed to the modified electronic property of Ru by the formation of RuIr alloy as the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed charge transfer from Ru to Ir, as well as the weakened surface acidity in the Ru–Ir/ZnO catalyst as evidenced by NH3 temperature-programmed desorption technique. Besides, the deactivation of the catalysts was due to the strong chemisorption of CO on the metal surface via decarbonylation reaction and deposition of organic compounds on the catalyst surface, which was characterized by CO poisoning experiment, CO temperature-programmed desorption and temperature-programmed oxidation methods.