Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Bandar Sg. Long, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: yapyh@utar.edu.my
Ultrason Sonochem, 2021 May;73:105490.
PMID: 33609992 DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2021.105490

Abstract

Sequentially precipitated Mg-promoted nickel-silica catalysts with ageing performed under various ultrasonic intensities were employed to study the catalyst performance in the partial hydrogenation of sunflower oil. Results from various characterisation studies showed that increasing ultrasonic intensity caused a higher degree of hydroxycarbonate erosion and suppressed the formation of Ni silicates and silica support, which improved Ni dispersion, BET surface area and catalyst reducibility. Growth of silica clusters on the catalyst aggregates were observed in the absence of ultrasonication, which explained the higher silica and nickel silicate content on the outer surface of the catalyst particle. Application of ultrasound also altered the electron density of the Ni species, which led to higher activity and enhanced product selectivity for sonicated catalysts. The catalyst synthesised with ultrasonic intensity of 20.78 Wcm-2 achieved 22.6% increase in hydrogenation activity, along with 28.5% decrease in trans-C18:1 yield at IV = 70, thus supporting the feasibility of such technique.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.