Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
In this investigation we elected to use the hydrogenation of 1-butene as probe reactions in an attempt to monitor any possible changes in catalytic behavior resulting from supporting 5 wt.% nickel on different types of carbon nanofibers compared to the performance of the same metal loading on more traditional carriers, including γ-Al2O3 and active carbon. In all cases the carbon nanofiber supported nickel particles are found to exhibit superior activity and significant changes in selectivity to that found from the same metal supported on traditional carriers.