Alcohol‐Treated Nickel‐Aluminium Catalyst for One‐Step Highly‐Selective Butane‐1,4‐Diol Synthesis from 2‐Butyne‐1,4‐Diol

Abstract

AbstractThe development of low‐cost nickel‐based catalysts for direct and selective hydrogenation of 2‐butyne‐1,4‐diol (BYD) to butane‐1,4‐diol (BAD) under mild conditions is an important and attractive target both in fundamental research and industrialization but remains a formidable challenge. The primary industrial production method for BAD synthesis is a two‐step reaction route, which suffers from complicated catalysis conditions and high equipment costs. Herein, we develop a high‐performance catalyst via a facile alcohol‐treated strategy for highly selective BAD synthesis at moderate operation conditions. The as‐synthesized NA‐80E catalyst exhibits outstanding BAD selectivity of 98.82 % and BYD conversion of 100 % at 60 °C and 4 MPa, outperforming most reported results for BAD formation in a one‐step process and even being comparable to those obtained by the two‐step hydrogenation reaction route under much high temperatures and pressures. Crucially, we found that after facile alcohol (ethanol) treatment, an intriguing phenomenon of suppression of adjacent acid‐assisted hydrogenolysis via extra acidic Al species at the NiO‐Al2O3 interface is observed, contributing to the precise enhancement of BAD selectivity by inhibiting the production of butanol (BOL). This facile alcohol‐treated method along with the revealed mechanism of blocked hydrogenolysis opens vast possibilities for designing high‐performance and highly‐selective hydrogenation catalysts.