ACTIVITY AND STABILITY OF ION-EXCHANGE RESIN-SUPPORTED TETRAKIS(TRIETHYL PHOSPHITE)NICKEL HYDRIDE CATALYST - VAPOR-PHASE ISOMERIZATION OF NORMAL-BUTENE

Ion exchange is a relatively infrequently used method of heterogenizing transition metal complex catalysts, despite its simplicity. This paper describes an investigation of the catalytic reactivity and stability of the cationic tetrakis(triethyl phosphite)nickel(0) hydride complex supported on Amberlyst(R)-15, a sulfonic acid cation exchange macroreticular resin based on styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer, for the vapor-phase isomerization of n-butene. The ionically heterogenized catalyst was found to be better than its homogeneous counterpart in catalytic activity and dramatically superior in catalyst stability. The Wei and Prater method was used for the kinetic analysis of the packed-bed reactor conversion data to estimate the rate constants.