Rhodium-Based Catalysts: An Impact of the Support Nature on the Catalytic Cyclohexane Ring Opening.

Because of the growing demand for high-quality fuels, the light cycle oil fraction improvement including cetane number improvement is important. The main way to reach this improvement is the ring opening of cyclic hydrocarbons, and a highly effective catalyst should be found. Cyclohexane ring openings are a possible option to investigate the catalyst activity.

Ethanol to Acetaldehyde Conversion under Thermal and Microwave Heating of ZnO-CuO-SiO Modified with WC Nanoparticles.

The nonoxidative conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde under thermal and microwave heating was studied on mixed oxide ZnO-CuO-SiO catalysts modified with additives of tungsten carbide nanoparticles. The results revealed that the WC-modified catalyst exhibited superior activity and selectivity under microwave heating conditions. It is assumed that when microwave heating is used, hot zones can appear at the contact points of WC nanoparticles and active centers of the mixed oxide ZnO-CuO-SiO catalyst, which intensively absorb microwave energy, allowing the more efficient formation of acetaldehyde at moderate temperatures.