Synthesis of magnetic Ru/Fe3O4@C nanospheres with controlled carbon layer and its high selectivity to prepare cis-pinane

A magnetic Ru/Fe3O4@C catalyst was prepared by loading Ru nanoparticles on a controller carbon layer. The characterization results showed that Ru/Fe3O4@C with the core-shell structured microspheres had good superparamagnetic properties and that the introduction of the controlled carbon layer adsorbent improved the morphological regularity, monodispersity and size uniformity of the Ru nanoparticles. The Ru/Fe3O4@C catalyst demonstrated a high catalytic activity towards the hydrogenation of alpha-pinene to form cis-pinane. The conversion of a-pinene was 99.3% and the selectivity for cis-pinane reached 98.2% at 160 degrees C for 2 h. The Ru/Fe3O4@C catalyst was easily separated from the reaction mixture when applying an external magnetic field, and the separated Ru/Fe3O4@C had a good reusability. After being reused 10 times, the a-pinene conversion and the cis-pinane selectivity decreased to 97.6% and 97.1%, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.