Enhancing Room‐Temperature Toluene Hydrogenation Over Ru/Mg–Al LDOs: Mg/Al Ratio Modulation and D‐Band Center Regulation
Haiqiang Bai, Xingyu Zhang, Bofang Hou, Ling Kang, Li Chao, Rameshwari Verma, Santosh Kumar Verma, Yunhua XuABSTRACT
Room‐temperature catalytic hydrogenation of toluene (a representative aromatic hydrocarbon) has great practical value, serving as LOHCs for hydrogen storage and transportation. Conventional thermal hydrogenation requires harsh high‐temperature and high‐pressure conditions with high energy consumption and potential safety risks, and aromatic rings are hard to activate at low temperatures. In this work, a series of Ru/Mg–Al LDO catalysts were fabricated via tuning the Mg/Al molar ratio, and their catalytic performance toward the room‐temperature hydrogenation of toluene to methylcyclohexane was systematically investigated. The catalyst with an Mg/Al molar ratio of 5:1 exhibited the best catalytic activity, delivering a TOF value of 7790 h − 1 . A higher Mg/Al ratio strengthened the surface basicity of the support and facilitated the heterolytic cleavage of H 2 . Meanwhile, it modulated the electronic interaction between Ru and the support, which upshifted the d‐band center of the catalyst and thereby improved its adsorption ability toward toluene.