Hydrogenation of highly unsaturated hydrocarbons over highly dispersed palladium catalyst

Hydrogenation of 1-butyne over palladium catalysts with dispersions between 9 and 100% reveals that the reaction is sensitive to metallic dispersion. A similar sensitivity is also exhibited by 1, 3-butadiene and isoprene, whereas 1-butene is insensitive to dispersion. This behaviour of the highly unsaturated hydrocarbons is explained by the formation of a strong complex of these hydrocarbons with very small particles at high dispersion.