Deposition of Indium Nanoparticles on Powdered Material by Pulse Arc Plasma to Synthesize Catalysts for Friedel-Crafts Alkylation

Abstract

Indium nanoparticles were deposited on zeolite powders using a pulse arc plasma system. The resulting materials were capable of catalyzing an organic chemical reaction, namely the Friedel-Crafts alkylation between benzhydryl chloride and anisole. Varying the electrical capacitance in the plasma system (360 µF or 1080 µF) resulted in some changes in the indium concentration on the sample surface and in the size of the indium nanoparticles, but the catalytic ability of the material was largely unaffected.