Catalytic hydrogenation of acetophenone over shape controlled Pd catalysts supported on sheet-like NiO

•Cubic, truncated octahedral and hexagonal/triangular Pd/NiO catalysts were synthesized.•The physicochemical properties of Pd/NiO catalysts have been fully characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS, and TG–DCS.•The size and shape effect of Pd/NiO catalysts was investigated.

Cubic, truncated octahedral and hexagonal/triangular Pd/NiO supported catalysts were synthesized and applied in the hydrogenation of acetophenone. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS and TG–DCS, and the catalytic performances for selective hydrogenation of acetophenone were evaluated under the condition of 80 °C, 3 h and 1.5 MPa pressure of hydrogen in alcohol media without additives. Results showed that the conversion of 19% and selectivity of 92% were achieved by hexagonal/triangular Pd/NiO catalyst. And when truncated octahedral Pd/NiO was used as the catalyst, the conversion of acetophenone was raised to 40%, while the selectivity of 1-phenethanol decreased to 89%. As to cubic Pd/NiO catalyst, the conversion to further improved to 70% and the selectivity of 1-phenethanol went down to 80%.

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