Mild-temperature chemoselective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde over amorphous Pt/Fe-Asp-A nanocatalyst with enhanced stability

Although amorphous Pt nanocatalysts have excellent activity for chemoselective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde, the selectivity and stability need to be further enhanced. In this paper, adenine (A) was used as a structure reinforcer to enhance the chemical stability of Fe-L-aspartic (Fe-Asp) coordination compound. The modified Fe-Asp-A support was employed to load Pt nanoparticles, and the resulting amorphous Pt/Fe-Asp-A nanocatalyst exhibited excellent activity, selectivity and stability. Under 50 °C, the conversion of cinnamaldehyde to cinnamyl alcohol was 93.1 % with selectivity of 91.2 %. Moreover, the catalytic performance of amorphous Pt/Fe-Asp-A nanocatalyst kept unchanged after 10 cycles. The amorphous Pt/Fe-Asp-A nanocatalyst could open a new door for high-efficiency selective catalytic hydrogenation of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes.