A Nickel/Palladium/Ruthenium-Graphene based nanocatalyst for selective catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils

The catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils has long been the subject of study. Indeed, the reduction of unsaturations can to improve stability and increase properties suitable for a wide range of applications. Moreover, even with so much effort, the results are still far from the objectives of obtaining cis isomer of monoenes in the presence of a low amount of stearic acid. A new catalyst, obtained from a one-step synthesis, operating in mild conditions with high activity and full selectivity towards the cis configuration of 9-octadecanoic acid was proposed. A Ni/Pd/Ru active phase, with surfactant chains surfaces conjugated, results dispersed on few-layer graphene for increased efficiency exploiting the adsorbent properties of the support. The results demonstrate that the nano-hybrid made up of cheap and available Ni with very small amounts of palladium and ruthenium, allows achieving during hydrogenation of canola oil favorable cis-C18:1/C18:0 ratios, at a low catalyst loading of 1 wt.%. The addition of the Ru active phase allows successfully achieving up to 75.3 wt.% cis C18:1, and 2.46 wt.% of stearic acid, after 60 min. Additionally, it is worth noticing that only 2.6 wt.% of cis C18:1 is constituted of cis positional isomers. The graphene stabilizing nanoparticles ensures catalyst stability over cycles of use.