In this study, we demonstrate noble metal-free Fe–N-codoped
graphene nanoshells (Fe–N/GNS) derived from petroleum pitch
as highly efficient and cost-effective catalysts for nitroaromatics
reduction. By employing α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles
simultaneously as both the hard template and the metal source, Fe–N/GNS
can be facilely synthesized through the template-oriented method,
followed by thermal annealing with urea for nitrogen doping. Owing
to the high-dispersed synergetic Fe–N active sites as well
as the hierarchical porous nanoshell structure, the Fe–N/GNS
catalysts show remarkable catalytic performance and good tolerance
for the reduction of nitroaromatics with NaBH4 aqueous
solution. The optimized Fe–N/GNS-800 corresponds to pseudo-first-order
kinetics for p-nitrophenol reduction at room temperature,
with the rate constant (k) reaching 1.23 min–1. The reinforced structure also allows the catalyst
to be readily recycled a dozen times without activity deterioration.
This work may provide a new avenue to facilely fabricate cost-effective
but powerful catalysts for nitroaromatics reduction and beyond.
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