Title : Metallic nanoparticles supported onto TiO2 nanotubes as catalysts for selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes
Abstract:
Aniline and its derivatives are important chemical intermediates for the syntheses of dyes, pigments, pharmaceuticals, polymers, agrochemicals and other fine chemicals. Heterogeneous selective hydrogenation of the NO2 functional group by hydrogen is a promising method to produce amino groups. In this work, we have synthesized various metal nanoparticles (Pt, Au and Ag) supported on titanium dioxide nanotubes (TiO2 NTs) for the chemoselective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene. The synthesized materials were characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and FT-IR measurements. The catalytic properties of these materials were tested using nitrobenzene as model compound for the hydrogenation to the corresponding anilines. All catalytic experiments was performed in batch regimen using Parr® type reactor and optimized operation conditions ensuring only a chemical control in the reaction’s kinetics. To compares the selectivity of the prepared catalysts, all the substrate was hydrogenated using both metal-NPs supported on commercial TiO2 carriers. These results are valuable to design novel efficient strategies for the selective hydrogenation of nitrocompounds.
