Fe Single Atoms and FeO Clusters Liberated from N-Doped Polyhedral Carbon for Chemoselective Hydrogenation under Mild Conditions.

In the area of catalysis, selective reduction of nitro compounds to amino compounds is a colossal challenge due to the existence of competitive reducible functional groups. Herein, an Fe-based catalyst Fe/FeO/N-doped polyhedral carbon (NPC) has been designed and synthesized. As we expected, compared with Fe and Fe, Fe/FeO/NPC shows excellent catalytic performance (turnover frequency up to 1923 h, calculated with nitrobenzene), chemoselectivity, and tolerance during the hydrogenation reaction of nitro compounds under room temperature because of the synergistic effects between Fe and FeO.

Fe/FeC Encapsulated in N-Doped Carbon Tubes: A Recyclable Catalyst for Hydrogenation with High Selectivity.

Herein, a series of Fe-based catalysts have been designed and prepared by grinding a mixture of MIL-88d and melamine, and then the mixture was followed by pyrolysis. An unusual Fe/FeC-activated site is uniformly encapsulated in the N-doped carbon tubes obtained by pyrolysis of the film-like nanocrystals of MIL-88d. Experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the surface N sites can effectively trap the nitrobenzene and aniline by their phenyl groups with the formation of three C-N bonds that made the catalyst exhibit excellent catalytic activity (turnover frequencies of ≤11268 h calculated on the basis of nitrobenzene) and chemoselectivity for the reduction of nitro derivatives under facile conditions.

High Selectivity of Hydrogenation Reaction over Co@C/PC Catalyst at Room Temperature.

In the field of catalysis, material scientists pay much attention to tuning the activity and chemoselectivity of metal nanoparticles. Herein, we design and successfully synthesize a series of Co NPs which show high performance on hydrogenation of nitroarenes with both activity and chemoselectivity. Co@C/PC preferentially activates the -C═O bond over -NO in water with ammonia borane (AB); however, when the hydrogen source is changes to hydrazine hydrate (HH), the results are the opposite.