Preparation of Ni/CNTs catalyst with high reducibility and their superior catalytic performance in benzene hydrogenation

• Ni/CNTs catalyst with high reducibility is facilely synthesized.
• The synergy of CNTs and ethylene glycol promoted the reduction of highly dispersed NiO.
• Inherent metallic Ni can induce the reduction of more NiO during catalytic hydrogenation.
• As-prepared Ni/CNTs exhibits excellent catalytic performance of benzene hydrogenation even without pretreatment by H2.

A facile synthesis of Ni/CNTs catalyst with high reducibility has been performed. The as-prepared Ni/CNTs sample exhibited excellent catalytic performance for benzene hydrogenation even without pretreatment by H2. The results indicated that using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as support in presence of ethylene glycol (EG) may result in the formation of a small amount of metallic Ni. These metallic Ni would induce to produce more metallic Ni and maintain the high activity during catalytic process. The synergy between CNTs and EG has been investigated in detail. The proposed preparation method and the promotion mechanism for catalytic hydrogenation provided a new convenient approach for the research and practical application of CNTs.

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