Stable Ni catalyst encapsulated in N-doped carbon nanotubes for one-pot reductive amination of nitroarenes with aldehydes

Abstract

A novel strategy involving a popping process and carbothermal reduction was developed to create a kind of stable nickel catalyst (Ni-NC). The popping process of the mixture being composed of carbon nitride (C3N4) and nickel nitrate decomposed the nickel nitrate into nickel (oxide) nanoparticles that afterwards functioned as catalyst to grow N-containing carbon nanotubes with carbon nitride as N-containing carbon source. Finally, the nickel catalyst possessed a special structure of nanoparticles encapsulated in N-doped carbon nanotubes. This special structure is helpful to prevent nickel nanoparticles from being oxidized in air for months so that the catalyst exhibits high stability in air atmosphere. As a practical application, this encapsulated nickel catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stability in one-pot cascade reaction involving nitro-reduction and reductive amination of nitroarenes.