Ring opening of decalin over bifunctional Ni–W carbide/Al2O3–USY catalysts and monofunctional acid Ni–W oxide/Al2O3–USY

The ring opening reaction of decalin was studied over two types of catalyst, including bifunctional catalysts (Ni–W carbide/Al2O3–USY) and monofunctional acid catalysts (Ni–W oxide/Al2O3–USY) with different amounts of metal loading. The catalysts were characterized by elemental analysis, X-ray diffraction, BET surface area measurement, element analysis, pulsed CO chemisorption, temperature-programmed oxidation, pyridine IR, temperature-programmed reduction and transmission electron microscopy. The two types of catalyst showed different performance on the ring opening reaction of decalin. The bifunctional catalysts showed high conservation of decalin, high selectivity of ring opening products and low selectivity of cracking products, while the monofunctional acid catalysts showed the opposite. Two different reaction routes during the ring opening reactions of decalin were put forward to further illustrate the bifunctional mechanism and monofunctional acid mechanism.