S. Nie, et al.
Molecular Catalysis 495 (2020) 111156
Scheme 2. Schematic diagram for the preparation of Ni/
MMT-AE.
physicochemical properties of the Ni/MMT-AE catalysts prepared by
different calcination temperatures (Table S1) showed that the catalyst
calcined at 300 °C displayed the largest hydrogen adsorption, metal
surface area and metal dispersion, although the catalyst calcined at
uneven shape with an average particle diameter of 5.1 nm, together
with certain aggregation (Fig. 3d). The Ni nanoparticles were also un-
evenly distributed in the Ni/MMT-B catalyst, which agglomerated to
bulk on the MMT support (Fig. 3e). The average particle diameter of Ni
nanoparticles in the Ni/MMT-B catalyst was 14.8 nm (Fig. 3f), much
larger than that of the Ni/MMT-AE catalyst.
2
−1
500 °C showed the largest BET surface area (90 m g ).
N
2
adsorption-desorption and pore size distributions of catalysts
prepared by different methods and calcination temperatures are
showed in Figs. 1 and S1. The results indicated that all catalysts ex-
hibited isotherm of type IV. There was a hysteresis loop in the relative
pressure region of 0.4–1.0, indicating that adsorption mainly occurred
in the mesoporous region. Moreover, the hysteresis loop in the iso-
therms (Fig. 1 a, c and Fig.S1 a, b, c, d) was H3 type, suggesting that the
pore structures in these catalysts were flat slit, cracks and wedge-
shaped structures composed of flake granular material [31]. These
structures conform to the natural structure of MMT and are benefit for
mass transfer during the hydrogenation process.
Fig. 4 shows the TEM images of the used catalysts. Notably, the Ni
nanoparticles in the Ni/MMT-AE catalyst still remained uniformly dis-
persed and the average particle diameter was kept to be 4.2 nm even
after 10 runs (Fig. 4b). In contrast, the Ni nanoparticles obviously ag-
glomerated with an average particle diameter of 22 nm in the Ni/MMT-
DP catalyst after 10 runs (Fig. 4d). The Ni nanoparticles also increased
to 18 nm in the Ni/MMT-B catalyst after 5 cycles (Fig. 4f). The above
results suggested that the Ni/MMT-AE catalyst had not only the uni-
formly dispersed and smallest, but also the most stable Ni nano-
particles, mainly attributed to the special ammonia evaporation pro-
cess, in which ammonia and Ni could form a uniformly dispersed and
stable complex during the preparation, thereby preventing the reaction
Fig. 2 shows the XRD patterns of the catalysts prepared by different
methods. As for the calcined samples (Fig. 2 a), the typical diffraction
peaks of MMT appeared at about 2θ = 6.7°, 21.1 °,22.3°, 35.7° and
−
of the tiny Ni particles with OH to form large Ni clusters [34].
61.8°, indicating that the MMT structure did not change after nickel
2
H -TPR profiles of the Ni/MMT-AE and Ni/MMT-DP catalysts are
loading and calcination. The weak and wide diffraction peak at
θ = 43.7° was attributed to NiO [29,32], demonstrating that the nickel
species have been uniformly distributed on the MMT support with small
particle sizes. The others peak of Ni/MMT-B was distributed to the
crystallization of metal salts. After the samples were reduced (Fig. 2 b),
the peaks of MMT were unchanged. A new diffraction peak appeared at
shown in Fig. 5. According to the previous report [35–38], the reduc-
tion peaks between 200–400 °C could be ascribed to the reduction of
free NiO with weak interaction between support. The reduction peaks
appearing in the temperature range of 400–650 °C can be ascribed to
the reduction of NiO that had strong interaction with support. Ob-
viously, the Ni/MMT-DP showed three reduction peaks at 228, 314 and
388 °C, respectively, indicating that the Ni species in this catalyst were
mainly from bulk NiO, which had weak interaction with support. As for
Ni/MMT-AE, there were three reduction peaks at 353, 438 and 633 °C,
respectively. The little peaks at 353 °C was ascribed to the reduction of
the bulk NiO. The peaks at 438 and 633 °C were ascribed to the re-
duction of NiO that had strong interaction with MMT. The larger
amounts of the latter kind of NiO would be helpful for protecting the Ni
species from aggregation and leaching during the reduction and reac-
tion process, and in turn improve the catalyst’s stability.
2
2
2
θ = 44.5°, together with the disappearance of the diffraction peak at
θ = 43.7°, indicated the reduction of NiO to Ni in the Ni/MMT-AE and
Ni/MMT-DP catalysts [29]. However, there was no diffraction peak
related to Ni could be detected in the spectrum of Ni/MMT-B. The
nickel species in this sample are suggested to be in an amorphous state
[
33].
Then, the effect of calcination temperatures was studied (Fig. S2).
The diffraction peak at 2θ = 11.3° was attributed to Ni (OH) in the
2
calcined Ni/MMT-AE-200 (Fig. S2 a), indicating that the nickel species
in the calcined Ni/MMT-AE-200 was mainly present in hydroxide state.
In contrast, the catalysts calcined at higher temperatures showed dif-
fraction peaks at about 2θ = 43.7°, which can be attributed to NiO.
Furthermore, typical diffraction peak of metallic Ni appeared at
XPS analysis is helpful to clarify the chemical states of metals and
the interaction between metal and support. Thus, XPS spectra of the Ni/
MMT-AE and Ni/MMT-DP catalysts were tested to further under-
standing these issues. As can be seen, there were two states of Ni 2 p3/2
spectra in both catalysts (Fig. 6). According to the literature [39,40],
the binding energies of Ni and NiO are about 852 and 855 eV in the Ni 2
2
θ = 44.5° in all reduced catalysts (Fig. S2 b). Notably, the catalyst
calcined at 300 °C had the smallest metallic Ni particle size among the
catalysts studied, indicating higher Ni dispersion in this catalyst and
accounting for its highest activity.
p
3/2 spectra, respectively. Thus, the peaks at 852.96 and 852.63 eV
were attributed to the metallic Ni on the surface of the MMT support
[41], and the peaks at 855.98 and 856.04 eV were ascribed to the NiO
species of the catalysts [42]. Some NiO were mainly due to the oxida-
tion of the catalyst surface during the sample transfer before the XPS
characterization [43,44]. It was obvious that the binding energy of
metallic Ni in Ni/MMT-AE was higher than that in Ni/MMT-DP,
TEM images of the fresh catalysts are exhibited in Fig. 3. Obviously,
the Ni nanoparticles in the Ni/MMT-AE catalyst were uniformly dis-
persed on the MMT support (Fig. 3a) and the particle size was in the
range of 1−10 nm with an average particle diameter of 4.1 nm
(
Fig. 3b). For the Ni/MMT-DP catalyst, the Ni nanoparticles showed
Table 1
Physicochemical properties of catalysts of different preparation methods.
Catalyst
Nia content (wt.%)
Surface area
Pore volume (nm)
H
2
-chemisorption (cm3 g−1
)
Metal surface area (m2 g −1
)
Metal dispersion (%)
2
−1
(
m
g
)
Ni/MMT-AE
Ni/MMT-DP
Ni/MMT-B
13.53
18.18
18.18
89
83
7
0.16
0.14
0.04
1.45
1.26
0.63
27.98
24.17
16.33
4.20
3.63
2.45
a: Based on ICP results.
3