Non-contact biomimetic mechanism for selective hydrogenation of nitroaromatics on heterogeneous metal nanocatalysts

While the enzymatic reduction of unsaturated compounds usually has high specificity, highly selective reduction processes are hardly realized by heterogeneous industrial catalysts, which is critical for the green production of many fine chemicals. Here, we report an unexpected discovery of a biomimetic behavior of dicyandiamide (DICY)-modified Pt nanocatalysts for the green hydrogenation of a wide range of nitroaromatics. We demonstrate that the surface modification by DICY not only prevents the direct contact of nitroaromatic reactants with Pt surface but also induces an effective non-contact hydrogenation mechanism mediated by protons and electrons. In such a process, the DICY layer serves as a “semi-permeable membrane” to allow the permeation of H 2 molecules for being activated into electrons and protons at the Pt-DICY interface. With the generation of separated protons and electrons, the nitro group with strong electrophilic properties can be hydrogenated through the electron transfer followed by the proton transfer, which is facilitated by the hydrogen bonding network formed by protonated DICY. The unique mechanism makes it highly directional toward the hydrogenation of nitro groups without side reactions. Owing to its capability to largely eliminate the waste generation, the developed Pt-DICY catalysts have been successfully applied for the green industrial production of many important aniline intermediates.