Supported Bimetallic AuPd Nanoparticles as a Catalyst for the Selective Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes

Ruiyang Qu; Margherita Macino; Sarwat Iqbal; Xiang Gao; Qian He; Graham John Hutchings; Meenakshisundaram Sankar

doi:10.3390/nano8090690

Supported Bimetallic AuPd Nanoparticles as a Catalyst for the Selective Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2018 Sep 5;8(9):690. doi: 10.3390/nano8090690.

Authors

Ruiyang Qu^{1

2}, Margherita Macino³, Sarwat Iqbal⁴, Xiang Gao⁵, Qian He⁶, Graham John Hutchings⁷, Meenakshisundaram Sankar⁸

Affiliations

¹ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. qury@zju.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. qury@zju.edu.cn.
³ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. macinom@cardiff.ac.uk.
⁴ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. iqbals13@cardiff.ac.uk.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. xgao1@zju.edu.cn.
⁶ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. heq6@cardiff.ac.uk.
⁷ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. hutch@cardiff.ac.uk.
⁸ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK. Sankar@cardiff.ac.uk.

Abstract

The solvent-free selective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene was carried out using a supported AuPd nanoparticles catalyst, prepared by the modified impregnation method (M_Im), as efficient catalyst >99% yield of aniline (AN) was obtained after 15 h at 90 °C, 3 bar H₂ that can be used without any further purification or separation, therefore reducing cost and energy input. Supported AuPd nanoparticles catalyst, prepared by M_Im, was found to be active and stable even after four recycle experiments, whereas the same catalyst prepared by S_Im was deactivated during the recycle experiments. The most effective catalyst was tested for the chemoselective hydrogenation of 4-chloronitrobenzene (CNB) to 4-chloroaniline (CAN). The activation energy of CNB to CAN was found to be 25 kJ mol^-1, while that of CNB to AN was found to be 31 kJ mol^-1. Based on this, the yield of CAN was maximized (92%) by the lowering the reaction temperature to 25 °C.

Keywords: bimetallic nanoparticles; selective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene and selective hydrogenation of chloronitrobenzene; solvent free hydrogenation.