Advanced Functional Materials, Vol.17, No.12, 1926-1931, 2007
Sandwiched ruthenium/carbon nanostructures for highly active heterogeneous hydrogenation
The immobilization of metal nanoparticles in the framework of porous carbon for heterogeneous catalysis may avoid particle aggregation, movement, and leaching, thus leading to a high catalyst efficiency. In this Full Paper, an approach to prepare Ru nanoparticles incorporated into the pore walls of porous carbon to form a sandwiched Ru/C nanostructure for heterogeneous hydrogenation is demonstrated. Physical adsorption of nitrogen, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, field-emission transmission electron microscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques are employed to study the structure and morphology of the catalysts. Catalytic results show that the Ru nanoparticles sandwiched in the pore walls of porous carbon display a remarkably high activity and stability in the hydrogenation of benzene. An enhanced hydrogen spillover effect is believed to play a significant role in the hydrogenation reaction because of the intimate interfacial contact between Ru nanoparticles and the carbon support. The catalyst system described in this work may offer a new concept for optimizing catalyst nanostructures.