Platinum supported on reduced graphene oxide as a catalyst for hydrogenation of nitroarenes

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-supported platinum (Pt) catalyst was prepared by simple ethylene glycol (EG) reduction and used for hydrogenation of nitroarenes. Characterizations showed that EG as a reductant exhibited more advantages than the widely used hydrazine hydrate to fabricate monodispersed, small sized Pt nanoparticles on the surface of RGO. The yield of aniline over the Pt/RGO-(EG) catalyst reached 70.2 mol-(AN)/(mol-(Pt) min) at 0 degrees C, which is 12.5 and 19.5 times higher than that of multi-walled carbon nanotube- and active carbon-supported Pt catalysts, respectively. When the reaction temperature was increased to 20 degrees C, the catalytic activity of Pt/RGO-(EG) jumped to 1138.3 mol-(AN)(mol-(Pt) mm), and it was also extremely active for the hydrogenation of a series of nitroarenes. The unique catalytic activity of Pt/RGO-(EG) is not only related to the well dispersed Pt clusters on the RGO sheets but also the well dispersion of Pt/RGO-(EG) in the reaction mixture. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.