Design and determination of new bimodal pore catalyst structure with hetero atom combination by inside-pore organization of nano-particles from sol.

Abstract

A catalyst support with spatially-connected small pores and large pores, as a distinct bimodal pore structure, has been developed, which has excellent advantages in solid-catalysis reactions because the large pores provide pathways for rapid molecular transportation and the small pores serve a large area of active surface. The obtained ZrO₂-SiO₂ bimodal support loaded with cobalt was applied in slurry-phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS). The bimodal catalyst presented the best reaction performance in slurry-phase FTS as higher reaction rate and lower methane selectivity, because the spatially promotional effect of bimodal structure and the chemically promotional effect of the porous zirconia were available at the same time inside the large pores of original silica gel.