A Carbon Shell Covered Pd Catalyst for Hydrogenation of 4-Nitrothioanisole

Catalytic hydrogenation of sulfur-containing substrates is an important and challenging reaction in the industry. In this work, carbon shell covered Pd catalysts were prepared by CVD process using acetylene as the precursor. During the process of CVD, the physical properties and the carbon content of the catalysts are closely related to the deposition temperature. The as-prepared C@Pd/TiO 2 catalysts showed the higher conversion (nearly 100%) and stability for the hydrogenation of 4-nitrothioanisole than the Pd/TiO 2 catalyst (45.5%). The excellent catalytic performance of C@Pd/TiO 2 catalyst can be attributed to the appropriate amount of carbon shell covering the surface of the catalyst. Compared with Pd/TiO 2 catalyst, the C@Pd/TiO 2 catalysts has only a tiny amount of sulfur-containing substrates deposited on the catalysts surface after three recycles by XPS analysis, which illustrates the reason for sulfur-resistance of the carbon shell covered Pd-based catalyst. Graphical Abstract