Selectivity control of Pt/SiC catalysts for photothermocatalytic hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene

Abstract Chemoselective hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene to 3-aminostyrene is a challenge because there are two easily reducible functional groups in one molecule. Bimetallic catalysts usually exhibit enhanced selectivity for the selective hydrogenation, but require higher reaction temperatures (~100 °C). Herein, we report that SiC-supported Pt-Fe catalyst can efficiently catalyze the selective hydrogenation of a variety of substituted nitroarenes to corresponding amines under mild conditions (20 °C, 1 atm of H2, white LED light irradiation and triethylamine (TEA) as sacrificial electron donor). For the hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene to 3-aminostyrene, the turnover frequency can be as high as 2366 h−1. The characterization results suggest that both the electronic structure of Pt and the adsorption mode of 3-nitrostyrene have changed after Fe incorporation. The iron species and TEA jointly consumed the holes on the SiC support, which favored the activation of C C bonds, thus increased the selectivity of 3-aminostyrene evidently. These results are helpful for designing Pt-based catalysts with excellent chemoselectivity.