Influence of Physicochemical Properties of Ni/Clinoptilolite Catalysts in the Hydrogenation of Acetophenone.

Heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation is an interesting alternative to conventional methods that use inorganic hydrides. The hydrogenation of acetophenone under heterogeneous conditions with the supported catalysts based on Ni is the most useful due to its redox properties and lower cost. As is well-known, catalyst support can significantly affect catalyst performance.

Phosphorus as a promoter of a nickel catalyst to obtain 1-phenylethanol from chemoselective hydrogenation of acetophenone.

Two catalysts were prepared using monodisperse pre-synthetized nanoparticles of metallic nickel and nickel phosphides with the same average diameter. Both nanoparticles species were deposited on the same support: mesoporous silica nano-spheres of MCM-41. This support is suitable to inhibit agglomeration and sintering processes during preparation steps.

Preparation and characterization of a supported system of NiP/NiP nanoparticles and their use as the active phase in chemoselective hydrogenation of acetophenone.

NiP/NiP nanoparticles were obtained by thermal decomposition of nickel organometallic salt at low temperature. The use of different characterization techniques allowed us to determine that this process produced a mixture of two nickel phosphide phases: NiP and NiP. These nickel phosphides nanoparticles, supported on mesoporous silica, showed activity and high selectivity for producing the hydrogenation of the acetophenone carbonyl group to obtain 1-phenylethanol.