Mesoporous carbon with controllable pore sizes as a support of the AuCl3 catalyst for acetylene hydrochlorination

Mesoporous carbon materials with controllable pore sizes within the range of 5.6-40.5 nm were successfully synthesized using colloidal silica as hard templates and boric acid as the pore expanding agent. The catalytic properties of the 0.5% AuCl3 loaded mesoporous carbon catalysts towards acetylene hydrochlorination were tested in a fixed-bed reactor. Under reaction conditions of 180 degrees C, C2H2 hourly space velocity = 720 h(-1) and HCl/C2H2 feed volume ratio = 1.15, it was found that larger mesoporous carbon supports could accelerate the reaction rate, resulting in higher acetylene conversion. The AuCl3 catalyst supported on mesoporous carbon with a pore size of about 40.5 nm displayed excellent catalytic activity (acetylene conversion was above 83%). The dependence of regular catalytic performance on pore size is important for acetylene hydrochlorination because large pore sizes enable fast molecular diffusion, thus suppressing coke formation. 2