The effect of heat treatment conditions on the textural and catalytic properties of nickel-titania composite aerogel catalysts

Abstract

Highly dispersed nickel-titania composite aerogel catalysts have been prepared by CO2 supercritical drying of alcogels obtained by the sol-gel process. The effect of heat treatment conditions on the textural and structural properties of the resulting aerogels was investigated by nitrogen adsorption-desorption, TG/DTA, XRD and TEM. The nickel-titania composite aerogel calcined and reduced under carefully controlled conditions exhibited an excellent catalytic performance for the liquid-phase hydrogenation of benzophenone to benzhydrol. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.