Nickel ultrafine particle (UFP) of 30nm in average diameter prepared by Gas Evaporation Technique (GET), was activated by heating in hydrogen gas in a fluidized bed. This activated Ni UFP was applied to hydrogenation catalysts; (1) selective hydrogenation of conjugated diene, 1, 3-cyclooctadiene, to cyclooctene, (2) enantioface-selective hydrogenation of methyl acetoacetate to optically active methyl 3-hydroxybutyrate. Bimetallic or rather two component UFP, copper-zinc was also prepared, and applied to methanol synthesis catalyst from carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In addition, the study of dehydorgenation of 2-propanol catalyzed by nickel UFP of 20nm in diameter has been done by M. Noda et al. From these studies it was found that GET could offer a new method to prepare a catalyst of high purity or a multicomponent catalyst.
