Synthesis and Characterization of Ni-Cu doped Zirconia-pillared Bentonite

Abstract

Copper doped Ni/zirconia-pillared bentonite prepared using pillarization-impregnation method and its application as heterogeneous catalyst for hydrocracking of cooking oil to biogasoline has been investigated. Several zirconia-pillared bentonite supported Ni-Cu catalyst (Ni-Cu [x:y])/ zirconia-pillared bentonites; where x and y represent the mass ratio of Ni and Cu, respectively) were prepared by the impregnation method and used for hydrocracking of cooking oil to biogasoline. The Ni-Cu/zirconia-pillared bentonite samples were characterized by TEM, SEM, TGA,while the surface area by N2 adsorption, GC-MS was used to evaluate the product. The catalytic activity was assessed in view of the effects of different mass ratios of Ni and Cu, temperature. Among all the samples, the Ni-Cu(3:1)/zirconia-pillared bentonite catalyst showed the highest catalytic ability.