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Oxychlorination–Dehydrochlorination Chemistry on Bifunctional Ceria Catalysts for Intensified Vinyl Chloride Production
Author(s) -
Scharfe Matthias,
LiraParada Pedro A.,
Paunović Vladimir,
Moser Maximilian,
Amrute Amol P.,
PérezRamírez Javier
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201510903
Subject(s) - bifunctional , ethylene , vinyl chloride , catalysis , chemistry , yield (engineering) , redox , chloride , monomer , bifunctional catalyst , nanocrystalline material , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , inorganic chemistry , materials science , polymer , metallurgy , engineering , copolymer , crystallography
Ceria catalyzes the one‐step production of the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) from ethylene with a high yield because of its bifunctional character: redox centers oxychlorinate ethylene to ethylene dichloride (EDC), which is subsequently dehydrochlorinated to VCM over strong acid sites generated in situ. Nanocrystalline CeO 2 and CeO 2 ‐ZrO 2 lead to a VCM yield of 25 % in a single pass, outperforming the best reported systems and reaching industrially attractive levels. The use of CeO 2 intensifies the current two‐step process within PVC production encompassing CuCl 2 ‐catalyzed oxychlorination and thermal cracking. In addition, ceria‐based materials offer stability advantages with respect to the archetypical CuCl 2 ‐based catalysts.