Preparation and catalytic performance of NiO-MnO2/Nb2O5-TiO2 for one-step synthesis of 2-ethylhexanol from n-butyraldehyde

Abstract One-pot synthesis of 2-ethylhexanol(2EHO) from n-butyraldehyde is of commercialimportance. The promotion of 2EHO selectivity requires suppressing direct hydrogenation of n-butyraldehyde. In this work, a series of NiO-MOx/Nb2O5-TiO2 catalysts were prepared and utilized by means of reduction-in-reaction technique, aiming at delaying the formation of metal sites and suppressing the direct hydrogenation. NiO-MnO2/Nb2O5-TiO2 with a Ni/Mn mass ratio of 10 and NiO-MnO2 loading of 14.3 wt% shows the best catalytic performance; 2-EHO selectivity could reach 90.0% at a complete conversion of n-butyraldehyde. Furthermore the catalyst could be used for four times without a substantial change in its catalytic performance.