Novel clay intercalated metal catalysts: a study of the hydrogenation of styrene and 1-octene on clay intercalated Pd catalysts

Pd-hexadecylammonium montmorillonite (Pd-HDAM) catalysts have been prepared by a novel synthetic route. Sample characterization including XRD and TEM measurements confirmed the existence of interlayer Pd nanocrystallites which occupy clay particle defect sites. The catalytic activities of Pd-HDAM samples were tested by hydrogenation of 1-octene and styrene in the liquid phase. The reaction of styrene was found to be less dependent on the dispersion of Pd than that of 1-octene. The highest activities were observed for samples of low and medium Pd content. The application of various solvents made it possible to establish a correlation between the activities and the basal spacings d(L) of Pd-HDAM samples. When the value of d(L) exceeded 3 nm, interlamellar active sites became more accessible for reactants.