Structural Ni-Ni Pair Sites for Highly Active Hydrogenation of Nitriles to Primary Amines.

Supported metal pair sites have sparked interest due to their tremendous potential as bifunctional catalysts. Here, we report the structural Ni-Ni pair sites constructed in a well-defined nanocrystal phase of NiP. These Ni-Ni pair sites exhibited a remarkable product formation rate of 123 mol/mol/h for the hydrogenation of benzonitrile (BN) to benzylamine (BA).