Issue 98, 2016

A highly active non-precious metal catalyst based on Fe–N–C@CNTs for nitroarene reduction

Abstract

Research on transition metal–nitrogen–carbon (M–N–C) materials revealed their potential as catalysts in several important traditional reactions. However, the activity of M–N–C still needs to be further improved and the real active center of M–N–C catalysts is still under debate. In this work, an efficient Fe–N–C@CNTs for the hydrogenation of nitroarenes was prepared by pyrolysis of FeCl3, phenanthroline and CNTs. Fe–N–C supported on CNTs is much more active than that supported on activated carbon, showing the promotion effect of CNTs. The characterization results suggest that the high activity of Fe–N–C is mainly attributed to the formation of ε-Fe3N, which is the active site for the hydrogenation reaction. Nitrogen/carbon atoms contacted to the active centers could serve as bridges to transport the dissociated hydrogen atoms via spillover effect. The catalytic performance of Fe–N–C was also tested on fixed bed reactor under continuous flow condition for the first time and could smoothly catalyze the reaction for over 300 hours.

Graphical abstract: A highly active non-precious metal catalyst based on Fe–N–C@CNTs for nitroarene reduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Aug 2016
Accepted
30 Sep 2016
First published
03 Oct 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 96203-96209

A highly active non-precious metal catalyst based on Fe–N–C@CNTs for nitroarene reduction

J. Chen, Y. Yao, J. Zhao, Y. Zhao, Y. Zheng, M. Li and Q. Yang, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 96203 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA20666B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements