Monodisperse CuPt alloy nanoparticles assembled on reduced graphene oxide as catalysts in the transfer hydrogenation of various functional organic groups

Abstract

We present herein a new nanocatalyst, namely binary CuPt alloy nanoparticles (NPs) supported on reduced graphene oxide (CuPt‐rGO), as a highly active heterogeneous catalyst for the transfer hydrogenation (TH) protocol that is demonstrated to be applicable over the reduction of various unsaturated organic compounds (olefins, aldehydes/ketones and nitroarenes) in aqueous solutions at room temperature. CuPt alloy NPs were synthesized by the co‐reduction of metal (II) acetylacetonates by borane‐tert‐butylamine (BTB) complex in hot oleylamine (OAm) solution and then assembled on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via ultrasonic‐assisted liquid phase self‐assembly method. The structure of yielded CuPt NPs and CuPt‐rGO nanocatalyst were characterized by TEM, XRD and ICP‐MS. The activity of Cu7Pt3‐rGO nanocatalysts were then tested for the THs that were conducted in a commercially available high‐pressure tube using water as sole solvent and ammonia borane as a hydrogen donor at room temperature. The presented catalytic TH protocol was successfully applied over nitroarenes, olefines and aldehydes/ketones, and all the tested compounds were converted to corresponding reduction products with the yields reaching up to 99% under ambient conditions. Moreover, the Cu7Pt3‐rGO nanocatalyst was also reusable in the TH by providing 99% yield after five consecutive runs in TH of nitrobenzene as an example.