Raney copper catalysts are conventionally prepared by contacting a starting copper aluminum alloy in particulate form with aqueous alkali metal hydroxide to remove some portion of the aluminum present initially. The manner in which such contacting is conducted affects the properties of the resulting Raney copper catalyst in such reactions, for example, as the hydrolysis of acrylonitrile to acrylamide under aqueous liquid phase conditions conducted in the presence of such catalyst.
Apparently, Raney copper catalysts have heretofore always been prepared with attention being given primarily to aluminum removal. Apparently, complete aluminum removal was heretofore sometimes believed to have been achieved and to be desirable for purposes of enhancing catalyst activity for this nitrile hydrolysis reaction; see, for example, Canadian Pat. No. 899,380, at p.5 where the Kawaken Fine Chemicals Co. Raney copper catalyst is used. According to Kawaken Fine Chemicals Co. trade literature, it appears that substantially complete aluminum removal is achieved in such catalyst.
The art theorizes that Raney catalysts can contain amounts of insoluble aluminates which are sufficient to adversely affect catalyst activity and life for whatever reason, and the art has described processing procedures alleged to remove such impurities; see for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,643,189; 2,604,455; 2,950,260; and British Pat. Nos. 642,861 and 658,863.
It has heretofore been proposed to activate Raney alloys for use as fuel cell electrodes by using in the activating solution alkali metal tartrates of polycarboxylated aliphatic amino compounds; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,235,513. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,276 for a discussion of catalyst regeneration using citric acid.
Because of the limitations and shortcomings observed for prior art Raney copper catalysts as respects catalyst initial activity and catalyst life, the art continues to seek improved Raney copper catalysts such as will be particularly suitable for use in such a nitrile hydrolysis reaction operated, for example, at rapid conversion rates and high conversion levels using a concentrated acrylonitrile/water feed.
So far as is known, no one has ever heretofore used, or suggested the use of polyfunctional oxygen-containing aromatic compound in preparing a Raney copper catalyst with aqueous alkali metal hydroxide. Furthermore, so far as is known, no one has ever heretofore used such a catalyst for the catalytic hydrolysis of acrylonitrile to acrylamide under aqueous liquid phase conditions.