Heterogeneous Non‐noble Catalyst for Highly Selective Production of Linear α‐Olefins from Fatty Acids: A Discovery of NiFe/C

Abstract Catalytic deoxygenation of even‐numbered fatty acids into odd‐chain linear α‐olefins (LAOs) has emerged as a complementary strategy to oligomerization of ethylene, which only affords even‐chain LAOs. Although enzymes and homogeneous catalysts have shown promising potential for this application, industrial production of LAOs through these catalytic systems is still very difficult to accomplish to date. A recent breakthrough involves the use of an expensive noble‐metal catalyst, Pd/C, through a phosphine ligands‐assisted method for LAOs production from fatty acid conversion. This study presents a unique, cost‐friendly, non‐noble bimetallic NiFe/C catalyst for highly selective LAOs production from fatty acids through decarbonylative dehydration. In the presence of acetic anhydride and phosphine ligand, a remarkable improvement in the yield of 1‐heptadecene from the conversion of stearic acid was found over the supported bimetallic catalyst (NiFe/C) as compared to corresponding monometallic counterparts (Ni/C and Fe/C). Through optimization of the reaction conditions, a 70.1 % heptadecene yield with selectivity to 1‐heptadecene as high as 92.8 % could be achieved over the bimetallic catalyst at just 190 °C. This unique bimetallic NiFe/C catalyst is composed of NiFe alloy in the material bulk phase and a surface mixture of NiFe alloy and oxidized NiFe δ+ species, which offer a synergized contribution towards decarbonylative dehydration of stearic acid for 1‐heptadecene production.