摘要
We demonstrated an aerosol-based approach to synthesize Ni-CeO -Al O hybrid nanostructure as a potent nanopowder catalyst for the production of polyetheramine via reductive amination of polypropylene glycol. The method combines a gas-phase evaporation-induced self-assembly with two-stage thermal treatments of the aerosol particles. The hybrid Ni-CeO nanoparticles (NPs) composed of ultrafine, homogeneously-distributed nanocrystallites of metallic Ni and ceria were shown to uniformly decorate on the surface of Al O nanoparticle cluster (NPC). The composition, physical size and surface state of the hybrid nanostructure were tunable by design. It was found that hybridization with Al O or CeO enhanced catalytic activity of the Ni catalyst. A high yield of ≈77% of the desired PEA and a high selectivity to primary amine (≈100%) achieved simultaneously. The surface nitridation of Ni catalyst was effectively suppressed via the incorporation with CeO NPs. An enhanced operation stability was observed by using the Ni-CeO -Al O hybrid nanostructure as catalyst in comparison to the Ni-only NP. The work demonstrated a facile route for controlled gas-phase synthesis of hybrid nanopowder catalysts using Al O NPC as the support matrix and CeO NP as the promoter to further enhance the performance of Ni catalyst toward reductive amination.