Gas-phase reduction of unsaturated ketones by hydrogen transfer reactions. A catalytic and spectroscopic study

F. BRAUN; A. ACOSTA; C.R. APESTEGUÍA; J.I. DI COSIMO

Houston, USA

Congreso; 20th North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society; 2007

In this paper, we studied the gas-phase HTR of an a,b-unsaturated ketone, mesityl oxide, toward the allylic alcohol on acid-base catalysts. We discussed the effect of varying the operating conditions such as contact time, reactant ratio, hydrogen donor and reaction temperature on both the activity and product distribution.  We also investigated the role played by the catalyst acid and base properties. By a combination of catalytic results and adsorption experiments by FTIR spectroscopy we identified reaction intermediates and analyzed stability of these species at different reaction conditions.  Our goal was to elucidate the reaction pathways leading to allylic alcohol and saturated compounds and to ascertain the nature of the surface intermediates and surface active sites that promote these reactions.