Liquid-phase hydrogenation of saturated and unsaturated nitriles: Activities and selectivities of bimetallic nickel-copper and nickel-iron catalysts supported on silica Original Research Article

Liquid-phase hydrogenation of a series of nitriles, namely, benzonitrile, butyronitrile, cinnamonitrile and crotononitrile over CuNiSiO and FeNiSiO has been investigated and the activities of the catalysts have been correlated with the structure of the catalysts on the basis of frontier orbital energy levels.