Shahram Ghanbari Pakdehi - Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing Technologies, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Mahboubeh Salehi Pour - Imam Khomeini Technical School, Electronics group, Tehran, Iran

Aniline was prepared by catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene (NB) on nano-sized Pd/γ-Al2O3 catalyst synthesized by sol-gel method. The catalyst was characterized by SEM, XRD and TEM. The average size of Pd particles was 36 nm. In this reaction, the hydrogenation rate was zero-order with respect to nitrobenzene concentration and increased with increasing of hydrogen pressure. Compared with commercial Pd/γ-Al2O3, catalytic activity and selectivity of the as-prepared Pd/γ-Al2O3 is superior. The reason proposed for higher catalytic activity of nano-sized Pd is the small particle size and high-density surface defects.

Nitrobenzene, Aniline, Nano-sized Pd/γ-Al2O3, Catalytic hydrogenation