Alcohol production from fatty acids via Ni3Fe/Rutile: Revealing the role of oxygen vacancy and metal-support electronic density characteristics

Abstract

Ni3Fe clusters anchored on rutile (R-TiO2) were synthesized by hydrothermal (HT), coprecipitation (CP) and impregnation (IM) methods, and the catalytic performance of different NiFe/R-TiO2 catalysts were investigated for hydrogenation of fatty acid into alcohol. Notably, HT-NiFe/R-TiO2 catalyst, with the highest specific surface area and Ni3Fe nanoparticles dispersion, exhibited the best hydrogenation activity towards alcohol production, with complete conversion and yield reach of 92.5 % at 4 MPa H2, 210 ℃ and 6 h. The structure–reactivity relationship was investigated by a series of catalysts characterization, DFT calculation and corroborated through hydrogenation performance evaluations. Anchoring Ni3Fe clusters onto highly dispersed basic site surfaces with different Ov concentrations can change the electron distribution and strength of the metal-support interaction, causing more stable adsorption of the H and acids molecular toward fatty alcohol production. This work provides further insight into the structure–activity of NiFe/TiO2 catalysts synthesized through different methods.