The catalytic hydrogenation of crotanaldehyde to produce crotyl alcohol employing Ni impregnated on rutile, anatase and high surface area titania supports has been investigated. The Ni is present in elemental state as fcc phase on the catalyst as evidenced by XRD results. The TPR results suggest a greater metal-support interaction in case of Ni/rutile. SEM images show a rectangular morphology for Ni/rutile and spherical morphology for Ni/TiO2 and Ni/anatase. The observed order of catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of crotanaldehyde is Ni/rutile > Ni/anatase > Ni/TiO2. The activity trend suggests that a higher dispersion of Ni has detrimental effect while surface concentration of Ni atoms determines the conversion of crotonaldehyde. The conversion (60%) and selectivity (86.4%) are found to be optimum at 70 degrees C and hydrogen pressure of 10 kg/cm(2). Both Ni/rutile and Ni/anatase exhibited a better stability than Ni/TiO2. An increase in conversion with hydrogen pressure suggests preferential adsorption of hydrogen on Ni present on the catalyst surface. A higher selectivity for crotyl alcohol suggests a more favorable adsorption of C=O group which is influenced by TiOx species present in the support. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.