Selective synthesis of acetone from isopropyl alcohol over active and stable CuO-NiO nanocomposites at relatively low-temperature

CuO-NiO nanocomposite catalysts were synthesized by an oxalate precipitation route. The basicity of the catalysts was measured using adsorption-desorption of acetic acid. The catalytic conversion of isopropanol to acetone was carried out in a conventional fixed bed flow type reactor at 200 °C using N2 as a carrier gas. The results indicated that, the addition of NiO to CuO greatly enhanced the electrical conductivity via the creation of new charge carriers (Cu+-Ni3+). In addition, the results revealed that the catalyst containing 30 wt.% NiO calcined at 400 °C possesses the highest catalytic activity with 98% conversion and 100% selectivity to acetone. The remarkable catalytic performance of the synthesized catalysts is attributed to the decrease of the energy gap, the increase in the concentration of charge carries (Cu+-Ni3+), and to the creation of more weak and intermediate basic sites.