Catalytic performance of Mo2C supported on onion-like carbon for dehydrogenation of cyclohexane

Abstract

Mo₂C is a promising substitute for noble metal catalysts. Mo₂C unsupported and supported on carbon (Mo₂C/C) including activated carbon (AC) and onion-like carbon (OLC) was used for hydrogen production. The activity and stability of the Mo₂C based catalysts in the dehydrogenation of cyclohexane were studied. The onion-like carbon supported Mo₂C catalyst (Mo₂C/OLC) was characterized by XRD, TEM and EDS techniques. The results indicate that the Mo₂C/OLC catalyst exhibited high stability and activity by adjusting the Mo contents compared to other catalysts. The structures and morphologies of OLC as well as the dispersion of Mo₂C did not change before and after reaction of the Mo₂C with 15 wt% Mo, which suggests that onion-like carbon is an effective support and Mo₂C/OLC is a potential catalyst substitute for noble metals in dehydrogenation.