Novel (Cu-Sn) AND (Ni-Sn) catalysts prepared by mechanical alloying

Abstract

This research was aimed to synthesize intermetallic catalysts using mechanical alloying (Ma) technique. Copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) were chosen to study since not only their properties are closed to the noble metal properties, e.g. platinum and palladium, but also they are not expensive. However, as also found in noble metals, both Cu and Ni metals are oxidized easily in air. To overcome this problem, either Cu or Ni was mixed with tin (Sn) to obtain bimetallics, viz. CuSn or NiSn, respectively. Therefore, this research was focused on finding the optimal conditions to synthesize both CuSn and NiSn bimetallics using the Ma technique and studied their catalytic activity on phenol hydroxylation and hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde, as well. Structural characterization was carried out using various instrumental techniques.