LAUSR

A doubly confined Ni‐AOM catalyst was fabricated from hydrotalcite‐montmorillonite composite by controlling the growth of hydrotalcite via a hydrothermal co‐precipitation method after the introduction of Ni2+ and Al3+ into the montmorillonite layers through an ion exchange method. The structure of this hydrotalcite‐montmorillonite composite was proved by XRD and TG/DTG. TEM results demonstrate that the nickel nanoparticles in Ni‐AOM were highly dispersed with an average particle size of 4.5 nm. Notably, Ni‐AOM showed excellent catalytic performance in the hydrogenation of dioctyl phthalate with the conversion and selectivity both being 99 %. Furthermore, it could be recycled 10 times without significant loss of activity, comparable to most noble metal catalysts. The excellent activity and stability of this catalyst was mainly attributed to the doubly confined effect of the montmorillonite laminate and Ni−Al oxide derived from hydrotalcite.