Ruthenium catalysts based on mesoporous aromatic frameworks for the hydrogenation of arenes

Novel catalysts consisting of ruthenium nanoparticles supported on diamond-like porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) with 3 and 4 benzene rings in the edges have been synthetized with a narrow particle size distribution (0.85 and 1.10 nm respectively). Several techniques, such as N2 physisorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance were used for characterizing the synthesized materials. The obtained catalysts appeared to be active in the hydrogenation of various aromatic substances (specific catalytic activity reached activities up to 2660 mol(Sub) h−1 mol (Ru) −1 in the case of phenol). Notably, a size-selective hydrogenation was observed for catalysts based on PAFs.