Carbon nanotubes supported palladium (Pd/CNTs) catalyst displayed excellent activity toward hydrogenation of polystyrene (PS) to produce polycyclohexylethylene (PCHE) with added commercial values. However, its application is limited by the costly catalyst filtration process and energy-consuming elevated agitation speed. Herein, a dense, homogeneous and strongly attached layer of CNTs was decorated on nickel foams and employed as the catalyst support for palladium nanoparticles. Structured catalyst (Pd/CNTs@NF) was directly used as the catalyst stirrer in a rotating foam stirrer reactor (RFSR) for PS hydrogenation. Owing to the enhanced mass-transfer process, the hydrogenation degree reached 68.8%, which was 45.1% higher than that obtained in a slurry reactor using powdered Pd/CNTs catalyst under identical reaction conditions. Outstanding attachment strength of CNTs on the foam and catalytic stability in eight runs of recycling were also demonstrated. This work elucidates the promising feasibility of structured Pd/CNTs@NF catalyst as the catalytic stirrer in RFSR.

中文翻译：

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碳纳米管上负载的钯修饰镍泡沫作为聚苯乙烯非均相加氢中的催化搅拌器

碳纳米管负载的钯（Pd / CNTs）催化剂对聚苯乙烯（PS）的氢化表现出优异的活性，可生产具有附加商业价值的聚环己基乙烯（PCHE）。然而，其应用受到昂贵的催化剂过滤过程和耗能的提高的搅拌速度的限制。在本文中，在镍泡沫上装饰了致密，均质且牢固附着的CNT层，并用作钯纳米粒子的催化剂载体。结构化催化剂（Pd / CNTs @ NF）在旋转泡沫搅拌器反应器（RFSR）中直接用作PS加氢的催化剂搅拌器。由于增强的传质过程，氢化度达到了68.8％，比在相同反应条件下使用粉末状Pd / CNTs催化剂的淤浆反应器中的氢化度高45.1％。还展示了碳纳米管在泡沫上的出色附着强度和八次循环使用的催化稳定性。这项工作阐明了结构化的Pd / CNTs @ NF催化剂在RFSR中作为催化剂的可行性。