n-Hexadecane (1.59 g, 7.0 mmol; 112 mmol based on carbon) and the catalyst (0.10 g) were added to a glass vial (20 mL) with a glass magnetic stir bar, and the vial was then placed into an
autoclave (75 mL, Parr Instrument). The
autoclave was purged three times with H
2 and then pressurized to 45 bar and sealed. The pressurized
autoclave was placed in a heating block at the desired temperature (275–375 °C) and stirred (350 rpm) for the given reaction time (2–6 h). After the reaction, the
autoclave was cooled to room temperature in a water bath. The gaseous products were transferred into a gas-sampling bag (1 L) and injected into a specialized gas-sampling gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) for analysis. For GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the liquid products,
n-dodecane (0.085 g, 0.5 mmol) was added to the vial as an internal standard and diethyl ether was used as the solvent if the resulting liquid was insufficient for GC sample preparation. In certain cases, dichloromethane was used to wash (8 mL × 3) the catalyst, and the catalyst was then vacuum dried overnight before conducting the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).
Lee W.T., van Muyden A., Bobbink F.D., Mensi M.D., Carullo J.R, & Dyson P.J. (2022). Mechanistic classification and benchmarking of polyolefin depolymerization over silica-alumina-based catalysts. Nature Communications, 13, 4850.