The dispersion of metal nanoparticles on a support is a common strategy to control their spatial distribution, geometry, and catalytic performance. In particular, modulating the electronic metal-support interactions (EMSI) is an elite strategy for tailoring the performance of heterogeneous catalysts. In the case of carbon supports, the chemical and electronic contributions of the support have been largely overlooked due to the perception that carbon is an inert scaffold. However, there is ample evidence in the materials science literature that correlations exist between carbons’ surface chemistry and their optoelectronic properties. Our group built on this knowledge and demonstrated the presence of a charge transfer at the metal-carbon interface for Pd/C catalysts that can be tuned by controlling the support’s surface chemistry, resulting in selectivity enhancements. Here, we studied this interplay in detail and established correlations between the selectivity of Pd/C for the liquid phase hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde, the nature and concentration of the oxygen-containing functional groups decorating the defective carbon surface, and the bandgap of the support. These results represent an important step in strategizing the design of carbon-supported metal catalysts for the liquid-phase conversion of multifunctional chemicals.

Enhancing the selectivity of Pd/C catalysts for the hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes by engineering the support’s surface chemistry

ACS Spring 2022

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