Ni-Au alloy nanoparticles as a high performance heterogeneous catalyst for hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds

Abstract

Selective hydrogenation of nitro compounds requires highly active and less expensive materials as a heterogeneous catalyst. As a good candidate, the Ni-Au alloy nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized by simple in-situ reduction method, which was loaded to the active carbon with 10 wt % loading amount. The Ni-Au/C catalyst shows superior catalytic performance for hydrogenation of nitro compounds with 100% conversion and selectivity without any by-products, which also indicates good recycle performance for several times use. The prepared catalyst not only reduces the usage amount of noble metal, but also keeps the high catalytic activity, which is a promising catalyst for industry applications.