Preparation of MoS₂ nanosheets to support Pd species for selective steerable hydrogenation of acetylene

Selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene while avoiding over-hydrogenation into ethane is challenging for polymer industry. For highly steerable catalyst design of Metal-MoS₂, we reported a few-layer nano-MoS₂ supported Pd catalyst, in which the support was prepared by the exfoliation method of bulk molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) in formamide solution. The results from TEM, SAED, AFM and Raman spectra analysis confirmed that the few-layer nano-MoS₂ was produced successfully. The XPS result indicates Pd charge transferred to MoS₂, proving strong Pd-MoS₂ interactions. Pd/nano-MoS₂ provided a good catalytic performance for the hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene, and the ethylene selectivity can reach up to 75% while acetylene conversion can achieve nearly 100%. Comparing with the commercial 5% Pd/C catalyst reported at similar conditions, the Pd/nano-MoS₂ synthesized in this study presents better activity and selectivity. In all, this work shows potential application of MoS₂ nanosheets used as catalyst support to achieve selective steerable reactions.