In an effort to better understand the excellent
synergism of certain physical mixtures of supported
catalysts for the 1-butene double bond shift described previously, the
butadiene hydroisomerization
selectivity/activity of the same mixtures was studied. Limited
activity/selectivity synergism for the
hydroisomerization of butadiene was measured for physical mixtures of
FeCe/Grafoil (alloy) and Pt/Grafoil
or Pd/Grafoil (noble metal). A high degree of synergism was noted
for mixtures in which the ratio of alloy
to noble metal was less than about 20:1. Additions of alloy to
mixtures which increased the ratio to values
higher than 20 did not change the activity or selectivity. For
Pd/Grafoil containing mixtures both activity
and selectivity synergism could be explained completely on the basis of
a hydrogen spillover model. For
example, the limit in activity synergism was ascribed to the depletion
of hydrogen atoms away from
palladium centers (radial gradient around each noble metal particle)
due to the use of these atoms in
hydrogenation of butadiene on FeCe particles. In contrast, to
explain the nonequilibrium ratio of 2-butenes
in platinum-containing mixtures, it is necessary to hypothesize two
processes: both hydrogen spillover
and bifunctional catalysis.