posted on 2022-08-16, 08:15authored byLongfei Zhu, Sen Ye, Jiazheng Zhu, Chengjie Duan, Kun Li, Guangke He, Xiang Liu
Developing highly active nonnoble-metal-based heterogeneous
catalysts
for selective hydrogenation is a long-sought goal due to the scarcity
and high price of noble metals. Herein, well-dispersed and small-sized
Ni nanoparticles (NPs) supported on hydroxyapatite (Ni-TA/HAP) were
prepared using a simple tartaric acid (TA)-assisted impregnation method,
which is based on the coupling interaction of strong electrostatic
adsorption between the HAP and TA and reactive metal–ligand
chelation between Ni and TA. Under mild conditions (e.g., 1 mol %
Ni, 3 bar H2 at 80 °C), the as-synthesized Ni-TA/HAP
exhibited excellent activity and selectivity (>99%) for the efficient
hydrogenation of phenolic compounds to the corresponding cyclohexanols,
as well as the controlled partial hydrogenation of N-heteroarenes. Characterization results revealed that TA addition
could promote a better dispersion of Ni species and inhibit the aggregation
of Ni NPs during the fabrication of the Ni-TA/HAP catalyst. An optimal
TA dosage (nTA/nNi = 0.5) as well as a low Ni loading (1.0 wt %) coconstructed
the favorable microstructure of the well-dispersed Ni nanoparticles
as the catalytic center. The hydrogenation was boosted by small-sized
Ni nanoparticles with a high ability for H2 activation
and HAP with both base and acid sites for appreciating phenol absorption.