High Catalytic Activity and Chemoselectivity of Sub-nanometric Pd Clusters on Porous Nanorods of CeO2 for Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes

Sub-nanometric Pd clusters on porous nanorods of CeO2 (PN-CeO2) with a high Pd dispersion of 73.6% exhibit the highest catalytic activity and best chemoselectivity for hydrogenation of nitroarenes to date. For hydrogenation of 4-nitrophenol, the catalysts yield a TOF of ∼44059 h–1 and a chemoselectivity to 4-aminophenol of >99.9%. The superior catalytic performance can be attributed to a cooperative effect between the highly dispersed sub-nanometric Pd clusters for hydrogen activation and unique surface sites of PN-CeO2 with a high concentration of oxygen vacancy for an energetically and geometrically preferential adsorption of nitroarenes via nitro group. The high concentration of surface defects of PN-CeO2 and large Pd dispersion contribute to the enhanced catalytic activity for the hydrogenation reactions. The high chemoselectivity is mainly governed by the high Pd dispersion on the support. The catalysts also deliver high catalytic activity and selectivity for nitroaromatics with various reducible substituents into the corresponding aminoarenes.