Spectroscopic and catalytic characterization of Ni nano-size catalyst for edible oil hydrogenation

Abstract

Nano-size nickel catalysts were prepared by different methods including impregnation, co-precipitation, and precipitation-deposition techniques on different supports such as silica, alumina and zeolite, by a low temperature reduction method (160–230 °C). Characterization of nano-nickel using ESR technique proved to be very effective, by which the actual particle size was obtained. The estimated particle size was compared with that determined from XRD patterns of Ni and was found to be directly proportional to the degree of conversion of the hydrogenated edible oil with a regression factor r = −0.99. The particle size measured by XRD did not give this direct relation. The obtained results showed that, the catalytic conversion over the prepared samples followed the order impregnation > co-precipitation > precipitation-deposition method.