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25 Jan 2010 19:04:54 IST

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Give the merits of RANEY catalyst over other catalysts?

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Give the merits of RANEY catalyst over other catalysts?

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rtrikha

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27 Jan 2010 22:06:35 IST

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Raney nickel (generically termed sponge nickel) is a high surface area solid catalyst composed of fine grains of nickel. Developed in 1926 by Murray Raney¹ as an alternative catalyst for the hydrogenation of vegetable oils, it is now commonly used as a heterogeneous catalyst in many organic synthesis processes – mainly in hydrogenation reactions.

Traditionally, the catalyst is prepared by alloying nickel and aluminium (usually in a 50:50 wt% ratio), crushing the ingot into a powder and then leaching out the aluminium with alkali to leave finely divided porous nickel.² This remaining structure has a large surface area, which gives it a high catalytic activity. Other metals that can be processed in a similar way are copper, cobalt, iron, silver and platinum.

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