Raney nickel
Overview
 
Raney nickel is a solid catalyst composed of fine grains of a nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

-aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...

, used in many industrial processes. It was developed in 1926 by American]] engineer Murray Raney
Murray Raney
Murray Raney was an American mechanical engineer born in Carrollton, Kentucky. He was the developer of a nickel catalyst that became known as Raney nickel, which is often used in industrial processes and scientific research for the hydrogenation of multiple covalent bonds present in...

 as an alternative catalyst for the hydrogenation
Hydrogenation
Hydrogenation, to treat with hydrogen, also a form of chemical reduction, is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate organic compounds. Hydrogenation typically...

 of vegetable oils in industrial processes. More recently it is used as a heterogeneous catalyst
Catalysis
Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....

 in a variety of organic syntheses
Organic synthesis
Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the construction of organic compounds via organic reactions. Organic molecules can often contain a higher level of complexity compared to purely inorganic compounds, so the synthesis of organic compounds has...

, most commonly for hydrogenation reactions.

Raney nickel is produced when a block of nickel-aluminium alloy is treated with concentrated sodium hydroxide.
 
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