[Pd(2‐pymo)₂]n/Al₂O₃ as MOF Single Site Catalyst for the Selective Hydrogenation of Acetylene

Despite the great potential of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in catalysis, industrial applications are still scarce. This is mainly due to a lack of performance when changing from idealized lab conditions towards realistic conditions of the actual application. In this work, we demonstrate the applicability and outstanding catalytic performance of an alumina-supported [Pd(2-pymo)₂]n MOF catalyst in the selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene under industrial front-end conditions. It shows a competitive performance to an industrial benchmark catalyst and even exceeds it in terms of ethane selectivity due to the combination of well-defined isolated Pd active sites and synergies due to MOF-support-interactions. The high stability was proven for up to 60 h time-on-stream and supported by XPS and XRD structural analysis.