Highly active, ultra-low loading single-atom iron catalysts for catalytic transfer hydrogenation

Zhidong An, Piaoping Yang, Delong Duan, Jiang Li (), Tong Wan, Yue Kong, Stavros Caratzoulas, Shuting Xiang, Jiaxing Liu, Lei Huang, Anatoly I. Frenkel, Yuan-Ye Jiang, Ran Long (), Zhenxing Li () and Dionisios G. Vlachos ()
Additional contact information
Zhidong An: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Piaoping Yang: University of Delaware
Delong Duan: University of Science and Technology of China
Jiang Li: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Tong Wan: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Yue Kong: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Stavros Caratzoulas: University of Delaware
Shuting Xiang: Stony Brook University
Jiaxing Liu: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Lei Huang: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Anatoly I. Frenkel: Stony Brook University
Yuan-Ye Jiang: Qufu Normal University
Ran Long: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhenxing Li: China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
Dionisios G. Vlachos: University of Delaware

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Highly effective and selective noble metal-free catalysts attract significant attention. Here, a single-atom iron catalyst is fabricated by saturated adsorption of trace iron onto zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) followed by pyrolysis. Its performance toward catalytic transfer hydrogenation of furfural is comparable to state-of-the-art catalysts and up to four orders higher than other Fe catalysts. Isotopic labeling experiments demonstrate an intermolecular hydride transfer mechanism. First principles simulations, spectroscopic calculations and experiments, and kinetic correlations reveal that the synthesis creates pyrrolic Fe(II)-plN3 as the active center whose flexibility manifested by being pulled out of the plane, enabled by defects, is crucial for collocating the reagents and allowing the chemistry to proceed. The catalyst catalyzes chemoselectively several substrates and possesses a unique trait whereby the chemistry is hindered for more acidic substrates than the hydrogen donors. This work paves the way toward noble-metal free single-atom catalysts for important chemical reactions.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42337-9 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-42337-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42337-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().