Transfer of Hydrogen by Hydroaromatics. 1. Mechanism of Dehydrogenation/Hydrogenation in Tetralin/Iron Catalyst Systems

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/j100456a019

At 400 deg C, the gas-phase dehydrogenation of teralin over iron catalysts is found to result in formation of naphthalene via the reaction of intermediate 1,2-dihydronaphthalene.The kinetic data for these systems were found to follow heterogeneous, first-order rate laws.A mechanism is presented which quatitatively describes the measured teralin and naphthalene kinetic behavior and successfully predicts the kinetic data observed for the 1,2-dihyronaphthalene intermediate.The rate-limiting reactions inthese systems are proposed as involving dehydrogenation/hydrogenation reactions on the surfaces of the catalysts.Based on data analysis, the rate constants for the surface reactions have values in the 1E-4-1E-5 s^-1 range.The catalytic surface site populations were found to be in the range 1E13-1E14 molecules cm^-2.