We investigated the effects of supports （CMK-3, SiO2ZrO2, MgO, Al2O3） and promoters （Cu, Ce, Fe） on textual properties of Ni based catalysts. o-Cresol was used as a probe to test the activity of these catalysts under the condition of 230 ℃ and nitrogen pres-sure of 0.1 MPa. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, H2 temperature programmed reduction ammonium programmed desorption, and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms. The results showed that the catalytic performance of Ni/CMK-3 （the conversion of o-cresol reached 45.4%） was significantly better than the other three kinds of supports. The modification of Ni/CMK-3 was also investigated and over 60% conversion of o-cresol was obtained after the addition of Ce （64.6%）and Cu （66.8%） in Ni/CMK-3, whereas the addition of Fe led to a decrease of conversion. In the meantime, Cu changed the products dis-tribution. The appearance of toluene indicated that another pathway existed in the reaction.Accompanied by the ascension of conversion in both sides, side effects also occurred and got more serious. The apparent order of activity for all the tested catalysts was NiCe/CMK-3〉NiCu/CMK-3〉Ni/CMK-3〉NiFe/CMK-3〉Ni/Al2O3Ni/SiO2ZrO2〉Ni/MgO. The reac-tion pathway, involving three routes, was also mentioned in this study.
