Highly Dispersed Pt Catalysts on Hierarchically Mesoporous Organosilica@Silica Nanoparticles with a Core–Shell Structure for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation of naphthalene can effectively reduce the content of aromatics in oil and generate high-value products. A series of Pt-based aluminum-modified core–shell-structured hierarchically periodic mesoporous organosilica@mesoporous silica nanoparticles (Pt/Al-x-PMOs@MSNs) were successfully synthesized and tested for the hydrogenation properties, with preferable mass transfer of macromolecular reactants in the pores and increasing the total acidity of the catalysts. Moreover, the physicochemical properties of the core–shell-structured Pt-based catalysts were systematically analyzed using various characterization techniques. At 300 °C, the naphthalene conversion on the Pt/Al-10-PMOs@MSNs catalyst reached up to 100%, the selectivity of trans-decalin reached 83.9%, and the rate constants (k1, k2) and TOF were 13.2 × 10–6 mol·g–1·s–1, 1.7 × 10–7 mol·g–1·s–1, and 218.8 h–1, respectively. In the presence of sulfur, the naphthalene hydrogenation over the Pt/Al-10-PMOs@MSN catalyst first decreased to around 40% and then recovered to the original level, which originated from the synergistic effect of the texture and chemical properties over the Pt/Al-10-PMOs@MSNs with an excellent performance.