title: Hollow Ni-B amorphous alloy with enhanced catalytic efficiency prepared in emulsion system.
abstract: Ni-B nanospheres were synthesized through chemical reduction of nickel ions with borohydride in an emulsion system comprised of cyclohexylamine, polyethylene glycol, and water. With the characterization of X-ray diffraction, selective area electronic diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, the resulting hollow Ni-B nanospheres were identified to be amorphous alloys with a hollow chamber. Cyclohexylamine played a significant role in fabricating hollow Ni-B nanospheres, because only solid nanoparticles were obtained in the absence of cyclohexylamine. Polyethylene glycol also had a significant influence on the formation of hollow Ni-B nanospheres, because low yield of hollow nanospheres were achieved without this polymer. During liquid-phase chloronitrobenzene hydrogenation, the as-synthesized Ni-B catalyst exhibited a much higher activity and even better selectivity than the dense Ni-B nanoparticles prepared by direct reduction of nickel ions with borohydride.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, PR China. lihui@shnu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qingfei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hexing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li