Transformations of cyclohexane and benzene on the bimetallic Ru-Pt oxide catalysts

The bimetallic Ru-Pt/Al₂O₃ catalysts with an overall metal content of 1 wt. % and Pt: Ru weight ratios from 1: 3 to 3: 1 were studied. The catalytic activity for cyclohexane and benzene transformations, including hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis, and skeletal isomerization of the initial substrates and products of intermediate transformations, was studied at temperatures 180–350 °C and H₂ pressures from 1.0 to 5.0 MPa. The maximum yield of n-hexane from cyclohexane and benzene was obtained on the catalysts with a ruthenium content of 0.75–1.0%, being ∼29–30 wt.% at 40% selectivity. The selectivity to form n-hexane decreases with an increase in the cyclohexane conversion and is almost independent of the composition of the Ru-Pt system. On the catalysts under study, benzene is converted to the same products but at temperatures by 60 °C lower as compared to cyclohexane conversion. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 633–637, April, 2006.