Oxidation and hydrogenation catalysis plays a crucial role in the current chemical industry for the production of key chemicals and intermediates. Because of their easy separation and recyclability, supported catalysts are widely used in these two processes. Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with the advantages of unique structure, composition diversity, high stability, ease of preparation and low cost have shown great potential in the design and synthesis of novel supported catalysts. This review summarizes the recent progress in supported catalysts by using LDHs as supports/precursors for catalytic oxidation and hydrogenation. Particularly, partial hydrogenation of acetylene, hydrogenation of dimethyl terephthalate, methanation, epoxidation of olefins, elimination of NOx and SOx emissions, and selective oxidation of biomass have been chosen as representative reactions in the petrochemical, fine chemicals, environmental protection and clean energy fields to highlight the potential application and the general functionality of LDH-based catalysts in catalytic oxidation and hydrogenation. Finally, we concisely discuss some of the scientific challenges and opportunities of supported catalysts based on LDH materials.

Au-Pd nanoalloys supported on Mg-Al mixed metal oxides prepared using sol-immobilisation are found to be highly efficient and reusable catalysts for the solvent-free oxidation of benzyl alcohol using molecular oxygen under low pressure. When using this support alloying Pd with Au resulted in an increase in both activity and selectivity to benzaldehyde and moreover an improved resistance to catalyst deactivation compared with the monometallic Pd and Au catalysts. The turnover number for the Au/Pd 1:1 molar ratio catalyst achieved 13,000 after 240 min and the selectivity to benzaldehyde was maintained at 93%; this high catalytic activity can be retained in full after three successive uses. The ensemble and electronic effect of Au-Pd nanoalloys were studied by IR spectroscopy using CO chemisorption, XPS and HRTEM. Moreover, the bifunctional nature of the acid-base MgAl-MMO support was found to be important as the acid sites are considered to be responsible for the improvement of catalytic activity; while, the basic sites gave rise to high selectivity. A possible mechanism with Au-Pd nanoparticles as the active sites has been proposed, illustrating that the oxidation of benzyl alcohol can proceed through the cooperation between the Au-Pd nanoalloys and the base/acid sites on the surface of the support.

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Supported Pd nanowire and cuboctahedron catalysts have been synthesized in an ethylene glycol− poly(vinylpyrrolidone)−KBr system using a precipitation− reduction method. KBr plays a critical role in controlling the morphology of Pd: with a variety of relatively low KBr concentrations, Pd nanowires with different lengths were obtained, but after adding sufficient KBr, shape evolution from nanowires to cuboctahedrons was observed. HRTEM images showed that the twisted Pd nanowires were actually composed of primary cuboctahedrons. Furthermore, lattice distortion was observed at interfacial regions, and the number of crystal boundaries increased with increasing length of the nanowires. The catalytic performance of the Pd materials was investigated in the selective hydrogenation of acetylene. The activities of the Pd nanowire catalysts were significantly higher than those of the cuboctahedron catalyst and gradually increased with the increasing number of crystal boundaries, indicating that the defect sites at crystal boundaries are more active owing to the exposure of larger numbers of Pd atoms. However, higher activity resulted in excessive hydrogenation and a decrease in ethylene selectivity. Therefore, the Pd cuboctahedron catalyst possessed higher selectivity. The relationship between crystal boundaries and catalytic performance was quantified, and the catalytic activity was found to increase linearly with an increasing number of crystal boundaries, whereas the trend in the selectivity was the reverse.

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Developing efficient seawater-electrolysis system for mass production of hydrogen is highly desirable due to the abundance of seawater. However, continuous electrolysis with seawater feeding boosts the concentration of sodium chloride in the electrolyzer, leading to severe electrode corrosion and chlorine evolution. Herein, the common-ion effect was utilized into the electrolyzer to depress the solubility of NaCl. Specifically, utilization of 6 M NaOH halved the solubility of NaCl in the electrolyte, affording efficient, durable, and sustained seawater electrolysis in NaCl-saturated electrolytes with triple production of H2, O2, and crystalline NaCl. Ternary NiCoFe phosphide was employed as a bifunctional anode and cathode in simulative and Ca/Mg-free seawater-electrolysis systems, which could stably work under 500 mA/cm2 for over 100 h. We attribute the high stability to the increased Na+ concentration, which reduces the concentration of dissolved Cl- in the electrolyte according to the common-ion effect, resulting in crystallization of NaCl, eliminated anode corrosion, and chlorine oxidation during continuous supplementation of Ca/Mg-free seawater to the electrolysis system.