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Abstract

The reaction between Ga-containing gas-phase species and palladium nanoparticles was investigated systematically concerning the possibility of a controlled formation of supported intermetallic Ga-Pd compounds. As the gallium-richest compound, GaPd can be prepared by this approach and also the compound GaPd2 can be obtained. The limited accessibility in the Ga-Pd system can be understood considering the thermodynamic data of the involved species. Synthesised materials were tested for their catalytic properties in the semi-hydrogenation of acetylene. GaPd2/C exhibits considerably inferior catalytic properties directly after synthesis due to the presence of iodine-containing species on the surface. However, those iodine-containing species can be removed by subsequent washing of the material with aqueous EDTA or formic acid to yield a highly active and selective material.