Exploration of ZnO-Doped Nitrogen-Carbon Materials Derived from Polyamide-Imide for Propane Dehydrogenation

• Published in: Inorganics Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 22
• Main Authors: Zhao, Huahua, Ji, Tingyu, Wu, Yanping, Song, Huanling, Wu, Jianfeng, Chou, Lingjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-01-2024
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbonization; Catalysts; Chemical properties; Curing; Dehydrogenation; Grain size; Metal oxides; Methods; Nanoparticles; Nitrogen; Polyamide resins; polyamide-imide; Polyamide-imides; Polyamides; Polyimideamides; Propane; propane dehydrogenation; propene; Vacuum; Zinc; Zinc oxide; ZnO-doped nitrogen-carbon; China
• ISSN: 2304-6740; 2304-6740
• DOI: 10.3390/inorganics12010022

A series of ZnO-doped nitrogen-carbon materials (xZnO-N-C) with ZnO contents of 5–40% are prepared by a vacuum curing–carbonization strategy using polyamide-imide as the N-C source and zinc nitrate as the metal source for propane dehydrogenation (PDH). 20ZnO-N-C exhibits outstanding initial activity (propane conversion of 35.2% and propene yield of 24.6%) and a relatively low deactivation rate (0.071 h−1) at 600 °C. The results of detailed characterization show that small ZnO nanoparticles (5.5 nm) with high dispersion on the catalyst can be obtained by adjusting the ZnO loading. Moreover, more nitrogen-based species, especially ZnNx species, are formed on 20ZnO-N-C in comparison with 20ZnO-N-C-air prepared via curing carbonization without vacuum, which may contribute to the higher product selectivity and catalytic stability of 20ZnO-N-C. The active sites for the PDH reaction on the catalyst system are proposed to be C=O species and Zn2+ species. Moreover, the carbon deposition and the aggregation of ZnO nanoparticles are the causes of activity loss on this catalyst system.