Liquid Phase Selective Hydrogenation of Citral over Bimetallic Transition Metal Catalysts

Silica supported bimetallic catalysts of Co-Ni, Ni-Cu and Cu-Co were prepared by deposition precipitation method, calcined at two different temperatures 475°C and 675°C. The prepared catalysts were characterized by BET surface area, SEM, EDX, FT-IR, thermogravimetry and XRD techniques. The XRD measurement of Ni–Cu/SiO2 catalyst has peaks due to CuO and NiO oxides. The catalytic activity and selectivity of these prepared catalysts towards liquid phase selective hydrogenation were studied. Amongst the studied catalysts, Co–Ni/SiO2 cacined at 475°C had presented higher selectivity in terms of citral towards unsaturated alcohols (geraniol and nerol) in a isopropanol solvent medium and 0.2% catalyst loading, at 90°C temperatures under 4 bar pressure with 750 rpm agitation.