Nanoscale Ni-B amorphous alloy catalyst supported on carbon nanotubes

Heat treatment of carbon nanotubes （CNTs） was carried out under ammonia atmosphere and then CNTs were modified by Triton x-100 （CNTs-T）. Ni-B amorphous alloy catalysts supported on CNTs and CNTs-T were prepared by impregnation-chemical reduction method. The catalysts were characterized by TEM, ICP, XRD, BET and CO chemisorption, and studied in the acetylene selective hydrogenation. The results show that homogeneous Ni-B amorphous particles with mean size about 10 nm are successfully prepared on CNTs-T. Compared with Ni-B/CNTs, nickel loading of Ni-B/CNTs-T is increased by about 14.6%. Furthermore, the activity and selectivity of Ni-B/CNTs-T are much higher than those of Ni-B/CNTs in the acetylene selective hydrogenation under comparative condition.