Hydrogenation of Dicyclopentadiene over Stable SiO₂@Ni/C Catalysts under Mild Conditions

The catalytic stability has always been a bottleneck of many reactions in industrial production. The preparation of long-life hydrogenation catalysts has been a hot research topic. Herein, Ni-ZIF was first grown in situ on the surface of SiO2. N-doped Ni/C nanoparticles were uniformly distributed on the SiO2 support after the subsequent annealing process. The uniform dispersion of Ni-ZIF contributed to the high dispersion of the active metal, and the highly dispersed Ni nanoparticles were free from thick carbon layers. The highly dispersed and fully exposed Ni determined its excellent low-temperature hydrogenation activity, which was critical for the extension of the catalyst lifetime. The presence of carbon and nitrogen was also beneficial to improve the stability of the catalyst. The N-doped SiO2@Ni/C catalyst exhibited excellent stability toward the hydrogenation of DCPD under mild condition. 100% DCPD conversion and >90% THDCPD selectivity were maintained after 144 h of continuous fixed-bed operation under GHSV of 2 h–1 at 60–90 °C.