PdRu nanocages as the switcher for the production of hydrogenation reaction toward 4-nitrostyrene

Abstract

The exploration of nanocatalysts with a desirable activity and chemselectivity toward hydrogenation reaction of nitroarenes to arylamines remains a formidable challenge. Herein, we report novel PdRu nanoalloys with a hollow, porous, and cubic morphology. The as-prepared PdRu nanocrystals exhibit a significantly improved and composition-dependent catalytic activity and selectivity toward the hydrogenation of 4-nitrostyrene at atmospheric pressure and low temperatures. Especially, the Pd81Ru19 catalysts show a high chemoselectivity (almost 100 %) to produce 4-ethylbenzenamine after the reaction was initiated for just 2 h at 50 °C. The conversion also reaches up to 100 % after the reduction reaction was carried out for only 1 h. The PdRu nanocatalysts also show excellent stability in both the cycling tests and structural characterization. This work therefore provides an effective strategy for rational design of nanocatalysts to realize high-efficiency hydrogenation reaction with desirable activity and selectivity.