ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Ethylene glycol-assisted formaldehyde reduction of styrene-divinylbenzene loaded with Pt as an efficient catalyst for liquid-phase hydrogen isotopes catalytic exchange

Kun Fu, Xilongju Xu, Lei Zhu, Cailin Liu, Xianyan Ren, Haijun Yang, and Shudong Lin

School of Materials and Chemistry, State Key Laboratory for Environment-Friendly Energy Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, People’s Republic of China

E-mail: liucailin2013@163.com

Received: 30 May 2024  Accepted: 29 April 2025

Abstract:

Pt/SDB is one of the promising catalysts used in liquid-phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) reaction to treat the tritium-containing wastewater produced by nuclear power generation. Mesoporous polystyrene-divinylbenzene (SDB) was prepared by suspension polymerization. With ethylene glycol and formaldehyde as reducing agents, a mild reduction method was developed to prepare the SDB-supported platinum (Pt) active particles, which was given as Pt/SDB-EG-PA. The structural morphology and catalytic activity were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption desorption, and hydrogen-water catalytic exchange experiments. The results show that the Pt/SDB-EG-PA hydrophobic catalyst has outstanding performance and excellent catalytic activity: The average particle size of platinum nanoparticles is about 2.5 nm, the proportion of Pt⁰ components is 61.5%, and the catalytic exchange column efficiency reaches about 82.0% and remains stable within 160 min. This study provides a new strategy for the preparation of Pt/SDB hydrophobic catalysts by low temperature reduction.

Keywords: Catalyst Synthesis; Catalytic Materials; Catalytic Mechanism; Heterogeneneous Catalysis; Homogeneous Catalysis; Materials for Energy and Catalysis; Liquid-phase catalytic exchange (LPCE); Hydrophobic catalyst; Platinum/styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer (Pt

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-025-04109-1

Chemical Papers 79 (8) 5101–5108 (2025)