Iron oxide modified N-doped porous carbon derived from porous organic polymers as a highly-efficient catalyst for reduction of nitroarenes

Abstract

Fabrication of cost-effective non-noble metal-based catalysts is significant for heterogeneous catalysis. Here, we prepared a porous organic polymer (POP) through the facile condensation of p-phenylenediamine with ferrocene carboxaldehyde, and then the ferrocene-functionalized POP material was carbonized under inert atmosphere, obtaining the γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) modified N-doped porous carbon catalyst (γ-Fe2O3/NPC). Various characterizations (such as XRD, BET, TEM and XPS etc.) indicated that the obtained γ-Fe2O3/NPC catalyst exhibits unique structural properties with uniformly dispersed γ-Fe2O3 species, porous morphology, and N-doped defective amorphous carbon. The γ-Fe2O3/NPC catalyst shows excellent activity in the catalytic reduction of nitroarenes with hydrazine hydrate as reductant. The synergistic effect between γ-Fe2O3 NPs and N-doped porous carbon improve the hydrazine hydrate adsorption and activation for active hydrogen atoms production, which is beneficial for nitroarenes reduction. Moreover, the γ-Fe2O3/NPC catalyst could be easily recycled by using a magnet and reused without obviously loss of catalytic activity. Therefore, this work should provide a useful platform for designing and fabricating stable non-noble metal NPs based catalysts derived from POP materials that have potential for various catalytic applications.