Improved Activity of Alumina-supported Nickel Catalyst by Adding Platinum

Abstract

A series of nickel oxide-alumina composite (1.3 atom ratio of Ni/A1) containing small amounts of platinum up to 10-2 weight per cent were retluced with hydrogen and the catalytic activity of each reduced nickel catalyst was compared for the vapour phase hydrogenation of benzene at temperatures of 100 and 150° C under atmospheric pressure. Incorporation of platinum was found to enhance the catalytic activity in proportion to the metal content, and to prevent the degradation of the activity with time in use.
Introduction of platinum also had affected the reducibility of the composite, and hence the activity of the reduced-catalyst. Thus, the platinized catalyst exhibited the same activity (cyclohexane yield of 9 per cent) as the none-platinized one at a lower temperature of about 40° for the preliminary reduction.
The rate of benzene hydrogenation was given by the first order kinetics in hydrogen over the two catalysts with and without platinum within the limits of this experimental conditions.