Hydrogenation of fatty acids to fatty alcohols over Ni3Fe nanoparticles anchored on TiO2 crystal catalyst : metal support interaction and mechanism investigation

Long, Feng and Wu, Shiyu and Chen, Yuwei and Cao, Xincheng and Zhao, Jiaping and Liu, Peng and Jiang, Jianchun and Zhang, Xiaolei and Xu, Junming (2023) Hydrogenation of fatty acids to fatty alcohols over Ni3Fe nanoparticles anchored on TiO2 crystal catalyst : metal support interaction and mechanism investigation. Chemical Engineering Journal, 464. 142773. ISSN 1385-8947 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.142773)

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Abstract

Catalytic transformation of fatty acids into fatty alcohols is the essential step to produce renewable energy and high-valuable chemicals from waste fatty acids. In this research, a series of Ni 3Fe catalysts were synthesized to improve this transformation, specifically that the Ni 3Fe anchored on TiO 2 surface has performed excellent activity with a high alcohol yield reaching 91.2%. The structure–reactivity relationship between the Ni 3Fe nanoparticles on different crystal types of TiO 2 (anatase: A-TiO 2, rutile: R-TiO 2) was investigated. It was found that the as-prepared Ni 3Fe/R-TiO 2 catalyst showed better catalytic performance than that of Ni 3Fe/A-TiO 2. Both experimental and density functional theory (DFT) computational results indicated that the interactions between Ni 3Fe nanoparticles and R-TiO 2 support have highly promoted the formation of oxygen vacancy (O v), which plays an essential role in C–O and H–H cleavage, thus promoting the hydrogenation towards fatty alcohols. Furthermore, the catalyst reusability tests showed that Ni 3Fe/TiO 2 catalyst exhibited good stability over four times recycled and excellent suitability for industrial crude fatty acid conversion.

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