Pt-Fe-Al Trimetallic Nanoporous Catalyst for Selective Hydrogenation of α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes

The selective hydrogenation of alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes using unsupported nanoporous platinum-iron-aluminum (PtFeAlNPore) as a heterogeneous catalyst was investigated in depth. A PtFeAlNPore trimetallic catalyst with a highly bicontinuous nanostructure was synthesized by a two-step chemical dealloying method. The catalyst exhibited a good yield with high selectivity for the hydrogenation of alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes into allyl alcohols under mild reaction conditions. A series of characterizations revealed that a decrease in the Pt electronic density (exhibiting superior hydrogen-activation ability), a nanoporous structure (providing increased reaction active sites), Lewis acidity (promoting the adsorption and activation of the carbonyl group in alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes), and intimate PtFe-Fe3O4 heterointerfaces (facilitating the selective hydrogenation of alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes into allyl alcohols) led to the excellent catalytic performance.