Quasi-Homogeneous Hydrogenation with Platinum and Palladium Nanoparticles Stabilized by Dendritic Core–Multishell Architectures

Platinum and palladium nanoparticles, supported and stabilized by polymeric core–shell architectures, proved to be active catalysts for hydrogenation reactions. Here, two different reactions were used as probes to investigate the influence of the polymeric support: the hydrogenation of α-methyl styrene (AMS) to cumene and the partial hydrogenation of 1,5-cyclooctadiene (COD). We found that the stability of the nanoparticles and the rate of reaction are higher in the presence of a hydrophobic octadecyl shell within a three-shell polymer system. The kinetic study of AMS hydrogenation showed much higher activities for palladium nanoparticles than for platinum nanoparticles, and the obtained results (e.g., 35 kJ/mol for the activation energy) are of the same order of magnitude as reported earlier for palladium supported on alumina. A methanol/n-heptane biphasic mixture was tested for catalyst recycling and allowed for highly efficient catalyst separation with very low metal leaching.