G. Zhou et al. / Journal of Catalysis 369 (2019) 352–362
353
can offer a new tuning parameter to regulate the catalytic perfor-
mance of metal NPs.
obtained products were labeled TiO2-x, where x represents the
temperature of the second hydrothermal treatment step.
The above TiO2 samples were then used as supports to prepare
the Ru/TiO2 catalysts by the wetness impregnation–chemical
reduction strategy. 0.5 g of the as-prepared TiO2 sample was dis-
persed in 10 ml of deionized water. 1.5 ml of RuCl3Á3H2O aqueous
solution (0.40 M) was added. After stirring for 3.5 h, 1.5 ml of KBH4
aqueous solution (1.58 M) was added dropwise. The nominal Ru
loading was 10.7 wt% for the catalysts. The solids were washed
with deionized water until inexistence of ClÀ1 (AgNO3 test). The
obtained catalysts were denoted as Ru/TiO2-x according to the kind
of the respective TiO2 support. For comparison, the Ru/Al2O3, Ru/
SiO2, Ru/CoO, Ru/NiO, Ru/CuO, and Ru/ZnO catalysts were also pre-
pared via the same strategy.
These leading works inspire us to explore the facet effect of TiO2
when serving as a support for Ru NPs on other industrially impor-
tant reactions, such as the conversion of environmentally toxic
feedstock to value-added product (benzene selective hydrogena-
tion to cyclohexene) addressed in the present work. The tetragonal
faceted-nanorods of anatase TiO2 single crystals with different
exposed degrees of highly reactive {1 0 0} facets were firstly syn-
thesized by hydrothermal route at different temperatures (433–
473 K), and then the Ru/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by a facile
wetness impregnation–chemical reduction method. We identified
that the hydrothermal temperature is essential to the exposed
degree of {1 0 0} facets, and the temperature to expose the most
{1 0 0} facets is 453 K. Meanwhile, O1s X-ray photoelectron spec-
troscopic (XPS) spectrum, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(FTIR), and water contact angle demonstrated that the hydrophilic-
ity of the Ru/TiO2 catalysts was in line with the exposed degree of
TiO2 {1 0 0} facets. In the selective hydrogenation of benzene to
cyclohexene, the Ru/TiO2-453 catalyst exhibited higher selectivity
than the Ru/TiO2-433, Ru/TiO2-443, and Ru/TiO2-473 catalysts pre-
pared in the same manner. An excellent linear correlation between
the cyclohexene selectivity and the hydrophilicity of these cata-
lysts was confirmed, which rationalizes the significant impact of
TiO2 facets on selectivity enhancement in selective hydrogenation
of benzene over Ru/TiO2 catalysts.
2.2. Catalytic evaluation
Selective hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexene was tested in
a 250 ml-capacity autoclave with a mechanical stirrer. After intro-
ducing 0.5 g of catalyst, 5.0 g of ZnSO4Á7H2O, 50 ml of H2O, and
25 ml of benzene, the autoclave was sealed and purged with H2.
The reaction conditions are temperature of 413 K, H2 pressure of
5.0 MPa, and stirring speed of 1000 rpm, which are typical for the
selective hydrogenation of benzene [12,17–21]. The product was
analyzed by a SC-3000B gas chromatograph with a thermal conduc-
tivity detector (TCD) and a PEG-20M packed column. The catalysts
were tested in duplicate, and the results agreed within 2%.
As the benzene conversion, the cyclohexene selectivity, and the
cyclohexene yield changed with reaction time (t), the turnover fre-
quency (TOF) of benzene and the initial selectivity towards cyclo-
hexene (S0), which were absolutely fair for all the catalysts, were
used to compare the intrinsic activity and selectivity, respectively.
For the calculation of the TOF, the initial weight-specific activity
(r0), that is, the reacted millimoles of benzene per gram of the cat-
alyst per minute at the beginning of the reaction, was acquired first
by the approach reported by Hu et al. [22]. Precisely, the polyno-
mial equation acquired by fitting the experimental curve of ben-
zene content and reaction time was differentiated, and the r0
was obtained by using zero to replace t. The TOF was calculated
according to the formula raised in our previous work [23]. For
the S0, the linear correlation of cyclohexene selectivity and t was
fitted, and the intercept is S0.
2. Experimental
2.1. Preparation
RuCl3Á3H2O was purchased from Adamas. P25 TiO2 was sup-
plied by Degussa. Benzene was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
Other unspecified chemicals were provide by Sinopharm Chemical
Reagent. All chemicals are analytical grade (A.R.). The gases were
purchased from Chongqing Ruike Gas Co.
The fabrication of the Ru/TiO2 catalysts is graphically illustrated
in Scheme 1. Firstly, TiO2 crystals exposed different degrees of
{1 0 0} facets were synthesized according to the strategy developed
by Li et al. with some modifications [6]. Specifically, 4 g P25 TiO2
and 80 ml of NaOH aqueous solution (10 M) were mixed and trans-
ferred to a 200 ml-capacity Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave.
The autoclave was sealed and hydrothermally treated at 393 K
for 24 h. After cooling down to room temperature, the white pre-
cipitates were separated and washed with deionized water until
the pH of approximate 10.5, producing Na-titanate intermediates.
Then, 2 g of the wet intermediates were dispersed into 80 ml of
deionized water and transferred to a 100 ml-capacity Teflon-
lined stainless steel autoclave. The autoclave was sealed and
hydrothermally treated at 433, 443, 453, and 473 K for 24 h,
respectively. After cooling down to room temperature, the white
precipitates were separated by centrifugation and washed with
deionized water until neutrality, and dried at 333 K for 10 h. The
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Texture and morphology of TiO2 nanorods
Table 1 lists the physicochemical parameters of the TiO2 sam-
ples. The N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms of the samples
(Fig. S1) all belonged to type IV with H3 hysteresis loop. According
to Table 1, a sharp decrease of the multipoint Brunauer–Emmett–
Teller surface area (SBET) and the pore volume (Vpore) was observed
when the hydrothermal temperature was elevated from 433 to
Scheme 1. Schematic illustration of the synthesis of TiO2 single crystals with dominated {1 0 0} facets-supported Ru catalysts.