Catalyst-mediated hydrogenations have provided tremendous utility in the conversion of toxic nitroaromatics into less harmful and synthetically useful aminophenols; a reaction of both environmental, industrial, and academic relevance. Typically, such reactions are promoted by precious metal catalysts. Larger-scope applications of such catalysts are thereby hindered by prohibitive costs. To circumvent this, it is more desirable to direct our attention toward tailored catalysts that can be developed with materials that are abundantly available, while causing minimal environmental impact. To address these issues, while delivering catalysts with competitive, or often superior activity, we design functional nanomaterials with multiple components that we try to exploit synergistically to harness superior reactivity. We report our ongoing work for supported organometallics on ceria nanoparticles. Ceria nanoparticles are synthesized, and their surface-functionalized with organic moieties through a multi-step process, and then further ligated to transition-metal salts. The materials are extensively studied using SEM, TEM, DLS, XRD, and the surface charge is examined using Zeta-potential measurements, while the chemical properties are analyzed using NMR, FTIR, UV-Vis at every step of the synthesis. Catalytic activity is evaluated over a broad range of nitroaromatics and structure-activity and selectivity relationships are reported.

Synthesis of tailored ceria nanoparticles for catalytic hydrogenations

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.