Selective synthesis of acetone from isopropyl alcohol over active and stable CuO–NiO nanocomposites at relatively low-temperature

CuO–NiO nanocomposite catalysts were synthesized by an oxalate precipitation route. The basicity of the catalysts was measured using adsorption–desorption of acetic acid.The catalytic conversion of isopropanol to acetone was carried out in a conventional fixed bed flow type reactor at 200 °C using N2 as a carrier gas. The results indicated that, the addition of NiO to CuO greatly enhanced the electrical conductivity via the creation of new charge carriers (Cu^+–Ni3^+). In addition, the results revealed that the catalyst containing 30 wt.% NiO calcined at 400 °C possesses the highest catalytic activity with 98% conversion and 100% selectivity to acetone. The remarkable catalytic performance of the synthesized catalysts is attributed to the decrease of the energy gap, the increase in the concentration of charge carries (Cu^+–Ni^3+), and to the creation of more weak and intermediate basic sites.