The Effect of Gold Nanoparticles on the Catalytic Activity of NiTiO3 for Hydrodeoxygenation of Guaiacol

Guaiacol is a typical model compound used to investigate and understand the hydrodeoxygenation behaviour of bio-oils, which critical their application as an alternative fossil resources. While extensive research has been carried out on developing catalysts for guaiacol hydrodeoxygenation, true active sites in these are often illusive. This study investigated effect Au-loading catalytic activity NiTiO3 guaiacol. It showed that metallic Ni formed by partial reduction was responsible its activity. effectively reduces temperature required from 400 °C 300 °C. Consequently, at 0.86 wt%, Au/NiTiO3-300 catalyst found deliver conversion ~32%, more than 6 times higher pure NiTiO3-300 catalyst.