Strategies and applications of combinatorial methods and high throughput screening to the discovery of non-noble metal catalyst

The integrated End-to-EndTM combinatorial process for catalyst preparation and screening, with emphasis on its capability to vary both process and compositional parameters will be demonstrated. Additionally, each step of the combinatorial screening process has been validated against results from traditional screening methods. The greatest challenge of all has been the adherence to the core concepts of the combinatorial approach. Catalyst libraries have been made and tested for naphthalene dehydrogenation chemistry. The preparation of these libraries has included the application of high throughput techniques for: 1. metal impregnation; 2. catalyst finishing; 3. catalyst screening. The catalyst screening system has been used to find a non-noble metal catalyst system that can replace Pt in dehydrogenation applications in the petroleum industry. A proprietary catalytic composition was developed for the dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane (MCH) to toluene starting with four non-noble metals of different proportions and four different supports (alumina, titania, zirconia and silica) prepared in different ways and applying a statistical design of experiments. These data demonstrate that all steps of catalyst preparation and screening are performed in a rapid, useful, high throughput manner. Data will be presented from the catalyst screening efforts will demonstrate that optimized metal composition is dependent on the support type. # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.