Dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane over Pt-based catalysts supported on functional granular activated carbon

Herein, we developed the dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane over Pt-based catalysts supported on functional granular activated carbon. Sulphuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid and aminopropyl triethoxy silane were adopted to modify the granular activated carbon. The structural characterizations suggested that the carbon materials had a large surface area, abundant pore structure, and a high number of oxygen-containing functional groups, which influenced the Pt-based catalysts on the particle size, dispersion and dehydrogenation activity. The hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction technique was utilized to investigate the interaction between the active component Pt and the various functionalized granular activated carbon materials. The CO pulse technique revealed the particle sizes and dispersion of the as-prepared Pt-based catalysts. Finally, the Pt-based catalysts were successfully applied to study their catalytic activity in the dehydrogenation reaction of methylcyclohexane. The results showed that the Pt-based catalyst over granular activated carbon functionalized with sulphuric acid groups had a higher conversion of methylcyclohexane (63%) and a larger hydrogen evolution rate (741.1 mmol gPt−1 min−1) than the other resulting Pt-based catalysts at 300 °C.