posted on 2023-04-04, 14:13authored byYinhuan Zhou, Yilin Zheng, Chenlin Lu, Basudev Maity, Yakui Chen, Takafumi Ueno, Zheng Liu, Diannan Lu
Reducing
halogenated nitrobenzenes to the corresponding halogenated
anilines is a critical process in the production of chemical industries.
However, commonly used metal catalysts often require high temperatures
and pressurized hydrogen during synthesis and catalysis and are prone
to dehalogenation reactions with low selectivity of the reaction.
Here we synthesize size-controlled (1.8–3 nm) apo-ferritin-caged
Pt nanoparticles at room temperature. The catalysts can efficiently
convert p-chloronitrobenzene to p-chloroaniline at 50 °C for 30 min and effectively inhibit the
dechlorination reaction with a selectivity of up to 99%; the TOF (22.8
min–1) is nearly ten times higher than that of the
unloaded platinum nanocatalyst. In addition, the catalysts also show
a selectivity higher than 90% for another halogenated nitrobenzene.
The TEM and XPS results reveal that the unique size effect and the
electronic effect of the catalyst due to the interaction between apo-ferritin
and platinum are significant reasons for its performance enhancement,
which also provides some theoretical basis for the rational design
of protein-based metal nanocatalysts.