A rapidly quenched skeletal Ni (RQ Ni) prepared by the melt-spinning method followed by alkali leaching was used as a new category of Ni precursor to fabricate effective chiral Ni catalyst. A series of tartaric acid (TA)-NaBr-modified RQ Ni catalysts (MRQNi) were derived, and the textural and structural properties of the MRQNi catalysts were systematically investigated. It is found that the modification conditions influence profoundly the composition, texture, and Ni crystallite size of the MRQNi catalysts. In liquid phase hydrogenation of butanone to R-(-)-2-butanol, the optimized MRQNi catalyst exhibits much better activity and enantioselectivity than the similarly chirally modified Raney Ni catalyst. Based on the characterizations, the superior catalytic performance of the MRQNi catalyst is mainly attributed to the higher surface content of the sodium-nickel(II) tartrate complex than that on the chirally modified Raney Ni catalyst. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.