Pt/Ta2O5–ZrO2 catalysts for vapour phase selective hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde Original Research Article

This paper reports a study on the effect of the support composition in Pt/Ta2O5–ZrO2 catalysts in regard to their catalytic behaviour in the vapour phase selective hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde (2-butenol). Two Ta2O5–ZrO2 supports with different Ta/Zr ratios and a pure Ta2O5 were prepared by a sol–gel route. The platinum catalysts were characterized by CO chemisorption, infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed CO and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The best catalyst in terms of activity and selectivity to crotyl alcohol (2-butenol) was Pt/Ta2O5, and this behaviour is tentatively related to the metal–support interaction. On the other hand, under the experimental conditions used, the acidic properties of the supports could not be correlated to the catalytic behaviour of these materials.