EXAFS study on ultrafine Ni-Co-B amorphous catalysts

A series of Ni-Co-B amorphous catalysts for hydrogenation of benzene have been prepared in a wide composition range by chemical reduction and their structure were studied by EXAFS. It is shown that the catalytic activity of these Ni-Co-B amorphous alloy is affected by both nickel content and the structural disorder of the sample; the latter could be adjusted by cobalt content of the sample. The EXAFS study also showed that the change of the boron content of the sample has a stronger effect on Ni-B coordination than on Co-B coordination and there is a preferential coordination of boron with nickel when the composition ratio B/Ni is high.