A highly active and stable Pd–TiO2/CDC–SiC catalyst for hydrogenation of 4-carboxybenzaldehyde

Carbon has been widely used as a catalyst support and adsorbent in industry. However, it suffers from poor stability due to its limited mechanical strength, particularly under high pressures and temperatures. We report here a carbide derived carbon (CDC) layer on a porous SiC surface, which has the properties of high mechanical strength and is easy to shape. The CDC exhibits an amorphous structure and contains mainly mesopores with a BET surface area of 125 m2 g−1. The CDC–SiC composite yields a comparable performance to coconut activated carbon (AC) as a catalyst support in the probe reaction hydrogenation of 4-carboxybenzaldehyde. The further introduction of TiO2 nanoparticles enhances the activity and stability significantly because of the improved dispersion of Pd particles on CDC–SiC. The activity is 4 times higher than the Pd/AC catalyst. Pd–TiO2/CDC–SiC shows great promise as an alternative to the current AC supported Pd catalyst for the crude terephthalic acid hydropurification industry.