Tailoring a Dynamic Metal–Polymer Interaction to Improve Catalyst Selectivity and Longevity in Hydrogenation
Kyunglim Hyun, Younghwan Park, Songhyun Lee, Jueun Lee, Yeonwoo Choi, Seung‐Jae Shin, Hyungjun Kim, Minkee Choi
Abstract
Controlling metal-support interactions is important for tuning the catalytic properties of supported metal catalysts. Here, premade Pd particles are supported on stable polymers containing different ligating functionalities to control the metal-polymer interactions and their catalytic properties in industrially relevant acetylene partial hydrogenation. The polymers containing strongly ligating groups (e.g., Ar-SH and Ar-S-Ar) can form a polymer overlayer on the Pd surface, which enables selective acetylene adsorption and partial hydrogenation to ethylene without deactivation. In contrast, polymers with weakly ligating groups (e.g., Ar-O-Ar) do not form an overlayer, resulting in non-selective hydrogenation and fast deactivation, similar to Pd catalysts on conventional inorganic supports. The results imply that tuning the metal-polymer interactions via rational polymer design can provide an efficient way of synthesizing selective and stable catalysts for hydrogenation.