Preparation of Ni/bentonite catalyst and its applications in the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline

The catalytic reaction was carried out in a fixed bed reactor using Ni/bentonite as catalyst. Aniline was synthesized over metallic Ni with the mixing gases of H2/nitrobenzene. Bentonite acted as the support in this nitrobenzene hydrogenation process. Reaction carried out at 300 °C with a H2 gaseous hourly space velocity of 4800 ml·(g cat)− 1·h− 1 and a nitrobenzene liquid hourly space velocity of 4.8 ml·(g cat)− 1·h− 1 over Ni/bentonite-20, providing 95.7% conversion of nitrobenzene and 98.8% selectivity of aniline. Higher dispersion and smaller crystallite size of metallic Ni are contributed to the batter catalytic performance. Ni/bentonite catalyst is a kind of promising catalyst in nitrobenzene hydrogenation process.