Influence of TiO2 and CeO2 on the hydrogenation activity of bulk Ni2P

TiO2- and CeO2-promoted bulk Ni2P catalysts were prepared by impregnation and in-situ H2 temperature-programmed reduction method. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD and XPS. The hydrogenation activities of the catalysts were studied using 1.5 wt.% 1-heptene in toluene and 1.0 wt.% phenylacetylene in ethanol as the model feeds. The results indicate that bulk Ni2P possesses low hydrogenation activity but is tunable by simply controlling the content of the additives (TiO2 or CeO2), suggesting that TiO2 and CeO2 are effective promoters to enhance the hydrogenation activity of Ni2P.