Template-Oriented Synthesis of Fe–N-Codoped Graphene Nanoshells Derived from Petroleum Pitch for Efficient Nitroaromatics Reduction

Abstract

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.

Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Supported Co/Ni Bimetallic Catalyst for Selectively Reductive N-Formylation of Nitroso in Guanine Synthesis

“…Recently, catalysts based on non-noble metals, such as Fe [9], Co [10], and Ni [11], have demonstrated high efficiencies in the hydrogenation or reduction of nitroarenes. Meanwhile, the investigations revealed that nitrogendoped carbon materials (NCMs) were excellent supports for enhancing the activity of metal catalysts [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Boosting ORR Activity in π-Rich Carbon-Supported Sub-3 nm Pt-Based Intermetallic Electrocatalysts via d–π Interaction

“…From the intensity ratio of the D-band and G-band ( I D / I G ), it can be seen that the I D / I G of NPPC (0.99) is smaller than that of NKC600J (1.24), indicating that NKC600J has more defects. It is worth pointing out that NPPC is a graphene-like material, which is a large aromatic unit obtained by thermochemical cross-linking reaction using diverse aromatic compounds and asphaltenes as precursors. , Since different graphene units are interconnected to form a functionalized network structure with excellent electron transport channels and abundant π-sites, the d–π interaction of NPPC is stronger than that of commercial carbon support.…”

Carbon-Supported Nitrogen-Doped Graphene-Wrapped Copper Nanoparticles: An Effective Catalyst for the Oxidative Carbonylation of Methanol

“…As shown in Figure 4, the two distinct characteristic peaks at 1350 and 1590 cm −1 belonged to the D and G peaks of the carbon material, which were attributed to the defect structure and the stretching vibration of the sp2 carbon atom, respectively. 43,44 The I D /I G values of the C, Cu/C, and Cu@NG/C-700 were 0.91, 0.91, and 0.94, respectively. The increase in the I D /I G value of Cu@NG/C-700 was mainly due to the nitrogen atoms incorporated into the graphene structure, which introduced defects in the sp 2 structure and increased the D peak intensity.…”