

FOLLOWUS
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 102488, China
Corresponding author. E-mail address: lesang@bit.edu.cn(L. Sang)
Received:13 September 2025,
Revised:2026-01-11,
Accepted:16 January 2026,
Online First:14 February 2026,
Published:2026-06
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Zhang Hongda, Hu Jinyan, Bao Shuting, et al. Hydrophobic Pd/Al2O3 catalyst intensified nitrobenzene hydrogenation in flow[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2026, 94(6): 92-101.
Designing efficient catalysts and solvent system for the multiphase hydrogenation reaction is vital in continuous flow reactors. Herein
we prepare hydrophilic Pd/Al
2
O
3
and hydrophobic modified C
12
PA-Pd/Al
2
O
3
catalyst for nitrobenzene (NB) hydrogenation in micropacked bed reactors (μPBRs). By tuning the methanol-water volume ratio
reaction
temperature
reaction pressure
liquid and gas superficial velocity
the NB conversion and aniline (AN) yield are optimized. The highest NB conversion of 97.1% and AN yield 95.6% are obtained in μPBRs with hydrophobic C
12
PA-Pd/Al
2
O
3
at the reaction temperature of 90℃. The apparent kinetic model is developed in μPBRs with two types of catalysts
and activity energies of NB hydrogenation for Pd/Al
2
O
3
and C
12
PA-Pd/Al
2
O
3
are 7.944 kJ·mol
- 1
and 3.372 kJ·mol
- 1
respectively. It indicates that the catalytic efficiency of C
12
PA-Pd/Al
2
O
3
is better than that of Pd/Al
2
O
3
in the methanol-water mixed solvent in μPBRs. The value of TOF for the hydrophobic modified C
12
PA-Pd/Al
2
O
3
catalyst is twice compared with the hydrophilic Pd/Al
2
O
3
catalyst. The value of STY for μPBRs is higher than that of stirred tank reactors (STRs) and fixed bed reactors (FBRs).
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