Lan Xiaocheng, Chen Jingguang G, Wang Tiefeng
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Chem Soc Rev. 2025 Aug 11;54(16):7654-7705. doi: 10.1039/d4cs01237b.
Selective acetylene hydrogenation is a crucial reaction for purifying ethylene in the petroleum industry and presents a promising non-oil route for producing ethylene by integrating acetylene production from natural gas and coal. Despite significant advancements in catalyst development, achieving both high catalytic activity and ethylene selectivity remains challenging due to competing side reactions, including over-hydrogenation to ethane, C-C coupling leading to oligomers, and C-C bond cleavage resulting in coke formation. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in the development of catalysts and understanding of reaction mechanism for acetylene hydrogenation to ethylene. Firstly, benchmarks for conversion and selectivity calculation are critically discussed. Then, research on active site design is categorized into monometallic sites, disordered alloy sites, intermetallic compound (IMC) sites, and single-atom (SA) sites, with a distinction between Pd-based and non-Pd-based catalysts. This categorization highlights the active site design strategies and summarizes state-of-the-art performance metrics. Emphasis is placed on the structure-performance relationships and the role of different active metals in enhancing ethylene selectivity and catalytic activity. In addition, the roles of catalyst support and modifiers are reviewed. Finally, we discuss challenges and future research directions in mechanistic understanding and catalyst design, aiming to guide further innovations in this important field.
选择性乙炔加氢是石油工业中净化乙烯的关键反应，并且通过整合天然气和煤炭制乙炔来生产乙烯，提供了一条有前景的非石油路线。尽管在催化剂开发方面取得了重大进展，但由于存在竞争的副反应，包括过度加氢生成乙烷、C-C偶联生成低聚物以及C-C键断裂导致积炭形成，要同时实现高催化活性和乙烯选择性仍然具有挑战性。本文综述了乙炔加氢制乙烯催化剂开发的最新进展以及对反应机理的理解。首先，对转化率和选择性计算的基准进行了批判性讨论。然后，将活性位点设计的研究分为单金属位点、无序合金位点、金属间化合物（IMC）位点和单原子（SA）位点，并区分了钯基和非钯基催化剂。这种分类突出了活性位点设计策略，并总结了当前的性能指标。重点关注结构-性能关系以及不同活性金属在提高乙烯选择性和催化活性方面的作用。此外，还综述了催化剂载体和改性剂的作用。最后，我们讨论了在机理理解和催化剂设计方面面临的挑战以及未来的研究方向，旨在指导这一重要领域的进一步创新。
