Synthesis of Electroless Cu-Ni-Mo-P/Al 2 O 3 for Glycerol Hydrogenolysis to Propan-1,2-diol

A new electroless bath was formulated using a mixture of two reducing agents - NaH 2 PO 2 and formaldehyde – for the synthesis of electroless Cu-Ni-Mo-P at pH of 10.2 and 80 o C. High material loading was obtained at high Cu 2+ / Ni 2+ molar ratio (> 1.0) in the electroless bath. In contrast, hypophosphite only baths were limited to deposit Cu-Ni-Mo-P only when the Cu 2+ / Ni 2+ molar ratio in solution is below 0.17. The deposits were characterized using SEM, EDX and XRD. The deposited Cu-Ni-Mo-P catalyst was crystalline. Within Cu 2+ / Ni 2+ molar ratio range of 0.08 – 1.0, the deposits contained 85-95.8% copper, 14.6 – 4% Ni, 0.26 - 0.15% Mo and 0.1-0.03% P. The results show the feasibility of the use of a mixture of reducing agents in electroless plating.