Effect of P/Ni ratio on the performance of nickel phosphide phases supported on zirconia for the hydrodeoxygenation of M-cresol

Abstract

The catalytic performances of various nickel phosphide catalysts (NiP) supported on ZrO2 synthesized with different P/Ni molar ratios (0.8, 2 and 3) were investigated in hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of m-cresol at 340 °C under 4 MPa. The solid sample with the highest P/Ni ratio (NiP-3/ZrO2) presented the best catalytic performances in terms of activity, which were attributed to the presence of the pure Ni2P phase, the other samples containing either a mixture of Ni2P and Ni12P5 (NiP-2/ZrO2) or Ni12P5 (NiP-0.8/ZrO2) alone were less active. The use of ZrO2 as support required a large excess of P to obtain Ni2P as active phase.