Abstract

Butenes are essential raw materials used to obtain polymers, gasoline additives and other chemical products. Industrially, Pt/Al2O3 catalysts have been used in the dehydrogenation of light paraffins, being very active but little selective and strongly deactivated by the formation of coke. For this reason, the catalytic stability and selectivity of this system must be improved with the incorporation of a second metal, such as Sn. On the other hand, Ga oxide has been useful in the dehydrogenation of light paraffins due to the presence of acid sites of medium and strong strength on the surface which are suggested to be active in this kind of reaction. The objective of this work was to study the effects of the addition of Ga on the catalytic behavior of Pt/Al2O3 catalysts in the n-butane dehydrogenation reaction. Catalysts were characterized by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), temperature programmed reduction (TPR), CO chemisorption, NH3 temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD) and FTIR of adsorbed CO