Role of structural properties of Ni-based catalysts towards aqueous glucose hydrogenation
(2022)
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- Sorbitol has been recognized as one of the 12 most important platform chemicals obtainable from biomass. It is usually produced by glucose hydrogenation in the presence of metal-based catalysts. Noble metal catalysts such as Ru demonstrate better catalytic performance than non-noble ones like Ni, while the latter is more preferable on the industrial scale due to its low cost and availability. Optimizing non-noble catalysts systems to push their properties closer to noble metals is also crucial for gaining overall understanding on the nature and associated mechanisms of non-noble metal formulations. In this thesis, three aspects have been considered to design Ni -based metal nanoparticles catalysts – shape, size and composition. We first obtained bare Ni nanoparticles with different shapes, and analysed their morphologies, crystallinities and compositions. Amorphous structures and P-doping were found to be critical factors in enhancing catalytic performance. Secondly, carbon supports - carbon black (CB) and graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) were introduced to disperse the NPs with different NPs sizes. Ni catalysts on CB support showed higher reactivities than with GNPs support, and Ni particles with an average size of 17 nm were demonstrated to exhibit the highest catalytic performance compared to other sizes. Thirdly, Fe was introduced into the Ni catalysts, forming Fe-Ni alloy catalysts, which achieved more than twice the glucose conversion of a monometallic Ni catalyst. At the end of the thesis, we found that sintering, surface oxidation and leaching were the main causes of deactivation, and the mitigation of leaching was achieved by changing the catalyst composition and reaction conditions and solvent.
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Fu, Y. (2022). Role of structural properties of Ni-based catalysts towards aqueous glucose hydrogenation. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/26107