Ni Particles Fabricated by a Bio-Polymer-Assistant Strategy toward the Efficient Reduction of Nitroarenes at Ambient Temperature

Considering of the fact that many of the catalysts reported previously show low selectivity in the hydrogenation reaction. Herein, a series of nickel particles embedded in porous carbon have been synthesized by bio-template strategy. Among of them, Ni@PC-900 (PC: porous carbon; 900: the pyrolysis temperature) shows higher activity and selectivity (conversion>99 % within 30 minutes under room temperature) than that of other catalysts. All of the characterizations of the as-synthesized indicate that the high catalytic activity has a positive correlation with the particle size and distribution of the particles. Moreover, Ni@PC-900 also exhibits excellent durability maybe due to the well core-shell structure protecting the active site from leaching during the catalytic process.