Pd nanoparticles supported on a covalent triazine-based framework material: an efficient and highly chemoselective catalyst for the reduction of nitroarenes

Pd nanoparticles anchored on a covalent triazine framework (Pd@CTF) were fabricated and employed to catalyze the transfer hydrogenation of nitro-compounds with formic acid as the hydrogen source. The results demonstrated that Pd@CTF displayed excellent catalytic activity and high chemoselectivity for the hydrogenation reaction at room temperature. Various substituted nitro-compounds were successfully converted to the corresponding amines in 0.2–2.5 h with other reducible functional moieties remaining intact. The high performance of Pd@CTF can be attributed to the synergistic interaction between the highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles and the covalent triazine framework support. The Pd@CTF catalyst can be readily reused for at least five consecutive runs without an obvious loss of its catalytic activity.