Nitrogen-modified metal-free carbon materials for acetylene hydrochlorination

In industry, mercury catalysts are mainly used in hydrochlorination of acetylene. However, the sublimation of mercury considerably harms human health and the environment. Therefore, the development of green catalysts is particularly demanding to eliminate the negative effects of such toxic catalysts. Based on this, we used a green, low-cost carrageenan as raw material. A nitrogen-modified carbon material was prepared by nitrogen modification using urea. Based on the reaction conditions of the catalyst dosage = 0.75 g, WHSV = 2.22 mL/g/min, temperature = 260°C, the conversion of the nitrogen-modified catalyst was 98.7%. Various characterization methods had demonstrated that the nitrogen modification produced a large amount of nitrogen and that the nitrogen element was sufficiently dispersed in the carbon material. In addition, identification of the appropriate annealing temperature greatly improved the adsorption catalytic capacity for acetylene. Therefore, an environmentally friendly non-metallic catalyst was developed, which also providing essential feedback for future industrial development.