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Ultra-small Pd clusters supported by chitin nanowires as highly efficient catalysts

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Abstract

For the first time, chitin microspheres woven from nanowires with multi-scale porous structures were used as an excellent support for a catalyst of ultra-small Pd clusters. The Pd species anchored on the precursor Pre-Pd@chitin were 0.6 nm in average size, while the reduced catalyst Red-Pd@chitin featured ultra-small particles of 1.3 nm in average size. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrated that the Pd catalyst in both oxidative and reductive states retained good dispersity and ultra-small clusters. The catalyst was tested for the hydrogenation of p-nitroanisole, exhibiting an excellent initial rate (13× that of commercial Pd/C)and excellent turnover frequency reaching 52,000 h−1. Furthermore, the catalyst could be recycled and used more than 10 times with no decay of the catalytic activity, suggesting potential industrial applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21334005), the Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21620102004), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21390402, 201703159 and 21520102003). Special thanks to Prof. Nanfeng Zheng in Xiamen University and Prof. Hexiang Deng in Wuhan University for their discussing.

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  1. Xianglin Pei and Yi Deng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Xianglin Pei, Yi Deng, Bo Duan, Aiwen Lei & Lina Zhang

  2. “National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center”, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan, China

    Ting-Shan Chan & Jyh-Fu Lee

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  1. Xianglin Pei
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Correspondence to Aiwen Lei or Lina Zhang.

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Pei, X., Deng, Y., Duan, B. et al. Ultra-small Pd clusters supported by chitin nanowires as highly efficient catalysts. Nano Res. 11, 3145–3153 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-1977-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-1977-0

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