With palladium chloride supported on active charcoal, catalytic oxidation of propylene to acetone in the vapor phase was studied both theoretically and experimentally. Using a conventional tubular flow reactor, the conversion of propylene as well as the selectivity to the acetone was investigated under various reaction conditions.
The reaction rate increased markedly with rise in steam concentration but decreased with rise in temperature. The reaction mechanism was discussed in details and was partly confirmed by the experiment.