Dual-active-component assembly catalyst based continuous flow system for organic reactions with high processing rate

[Display omitted] •A facile strategy is proposed to prepare a dual-active-component assembly catalyst.•The assembly catalyst is integrated into a fixed-bed system for organic reactions.•The catalytic system shows a high processing rate in continuous flow.•The reaction mechanism is proposed and the active sites are identified. Designing and fabricating suitable packing catalyst with high activity and low flow resistance for continuous flow system is highly desirable but remains a grand challenge. Here we report a facile one-pot strategy to synthesize a dual-active-component assembly catalyst (DACAC) with N-doped holey graphene (NHG) anchored single-atom Pd (Pd1) self-assembled on fibrous aluminum silicate cluster (FASC) skeleton. The resultant Pd1/NHG–FASC DACAC possesses dual-active-components (i.e., Pd atoms and NHG) and hierarchical architecture and can be easily integrated into a fixed-bed platform to construct a catalytic continuous flow system. This fixed-bed system based on the assembly catalyst architecture effectively drives continuous flow reactions with excellent catalytic efficiency for nitroarene reduction and phenylboronic acid oxidative hydroxylation reactions. The processing rate for catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol is 1.5 × 10–3 mmol·mg−1·min−1, which is much higher than that of other previously reported packing catalysts based fixed-bed systems. The activity enhancement strategy of dual-active-component provides a new approach to design highly efficient catalytic materials.