Kinetical Study of the Catalytic Hydrogenation of Catechol by Metals

In this paper, the kinetical study of catalytic hydrogenation of catechol over platinum metal catalysts in liquid phase under room temperature and one atmospheric pressure was investigated. Simple models “straight line” model 1 together with “triangle” model 2 were used to interpret for the change of compositions of samples traced during the reaction process, and the interpretation was found to be satisfactory. These models are as following: Model 1: consecutive reaction path catechol2-hydroxycyclohexanonecyclohexane-1,2-diol Model 2: catecholcyclohexane-1, 2-diol directly was added to reaction path of model 1. The relative reaction rates during hydrogenation processes over ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and platinum were calculated too. It was also found that the strength of oxygen affinity with catalysts was the factor influenced the selectivity of reaction path and the stereoselectivity of cis and trans diol products.