New promising nanocatalysts: catalytic behavior of kaolinite/dimethyl sulfoxide, Al 2 O 3 and silica gel supported Pt nanocatalysts

In recent years, kaolinite-supported nanoscale catalytic systems have gained widespread use due to their high efficiency and selectivity. In this article, we report synthesis and catalytic performance (in n-heptane reforming processes) of kaolinite-, Al ₂ O ₃ - and silica gel-supported Pt catalysts. Structural peculiarities of these nanocatalysts are studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) methods. It has been shown that on Pt/Al ₂ O ₃ , Pt/SiO ₂ , Pt/kaolinite and Pt/kaolinite/DMSO catalysts formation of isomeric products is observed and an increase in temperature decreases isomerization selectivity and simultaneously increases the formation of cleavage products. The results show that n-heptane conversion over the Pt/SiO ₂ catalyst is lower than that of corresponding catalysts supported on Al ₂ O ₃ . Furthermore, swelling kaolinite with polar aprotic solvents such as DMSO, followed by impregnation with Pt salts, leads to the formation of nanosized Pt particles with enhanced catalytic activity. The presented results also indicate that the Pt/kaolinite catalyst exhibits lower catalytic activity than that of Pt/kaolinite/DMSO catalyst. These observations highlight the potential of modified kaolinite supports for the further development of effective catalytic materials.