The Effect of Support Pretreatment with Ammonia on Pd/SiO<sub>2</sub> Catalyst

We have reported the effect of support pretreatment with ammonia on Pd/SiO2 catalyst in this study. SiO2 was pretreated with ammonia water to increase the Pd dispersion before the preparation of Pd/SiO2 catalysts. The effect of support pretreatment with ammonia on Pd/SiO2 catalyst was investigated by XRD, FT-IR, N2-adsorption and FE-TEM. The Pd supported on pretreated SiO2 were characterized by XRD, CO-chemisorption and FE-TEM. The pretreatment of SiO2 with ammonia water lead to decrease of silanol groups (Si-OH) up to temperature 200 °C. This decline of silanol groups on the SiO2 affects highly dispersed Pd/SiO2 as 6.52 %. The result showed that the decrease of silanol group on the SiO2 was favorable for the Pd dispersion. It is reason that absence of the silanol groups contribute to the high metal reducibility.