Abstract
It is shown that copolymers of poly-(ethylene)-propyleneglycolmaleates (p-EGM and p-PGM) with acrylic acid (AA) can be used as matrices for preparation of effective metal-polymer complexes for hydrogenation of organic compounds. Electron microscopic and dynamic scattering techniques were used for determining the average nanoparticle size equal to 112 nm; the nanoparticles are spheres with uniform distribution along the polymer cross-section. The nickel and cobalt contents are 0.52 and 0.48 wt %, respectively, in p-EGM/AA, 0.49 and 0.51 wt %, respectively, in p-PGM/AA. The temperature elevation from 25 to 40 °C allows the rate of pyridine hydrogenation to be increased due to the catalyst activation, and the number of catalyst active centers to be increased due to swelling of the polymer network and its transition from tight globular to expanded state. An increase in the current strength from 1 to 3 A results in a decrease in the pyridine yield that does not allow current density to be increased in order to shorten the synthesis time. The obtained experimental data make it possible to obtain the target hydrogenation product at higher rates and yields.