Studies on the promotion of nickel—alumina coprecipitated catalysts: I. Titanium oxide

A series of TiO₂-promoted nickel—alumina catalysts has been prepared and characterized. The promoter was added in various proportions to a calcined coprecipitated nickel—alumina material by adsorption of the acetylacetonate complex of titanium, followed by further calcination and reduction. The structure of the resultant materials was similar to that of the unpromoted coprecipitated nickel—alumina. The chemisorption properties of the catalyst and its behaviour in the CO/H₂ reaction were characteristic of a strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) reported in the literature for Ni/TiO₂. The strong adsorption of both carbon monoxide and hydrogen were suppressed while the activity for carbon monoxide hydrogenation was increased, the activation energy being lowered. The higher activity, however, was relatively unstable under reaction conditions.