Synthesis of Co@NC catalyst from bamboo leaves for efficient hydrogenation of nitroaromatic sulfonic acid compounds

Abstract

The synthesis of aminoaromatic sulfonic acid (ASA) compounds by catalytic hydrogenation of nitroaromatic sulfonic acid (NSA) compounds is a promising process due to its environmental friendliness. However, the catalysts for NSA hydrogenation have the problems of high cost and easy inactivation, which limited the industrial application of NSA hydrogenation. In this work, we successfully synthesized Co@NC-B-800 catalyst with sustainable development concept by using cheap bamboo leaves as raw material. The characterizations demonstrated that Co nanoparticles (NPs) coated by N-doped carbon and Co-N_x species were the main active site. The hydrogenation of sodium m-nitrobenzenesulfonate (SNS) was used as a probe reaction to test the catalytic performance. The Co@NC-B-800 catalyst possesses high activity with SNS conversion of 99.63 % and the m-aminobenzene sulfonic acid selectivity of 99.74 % within 3.5 h at 100 ℃, 4 MPa. Furthermore, the hydrogenation of a series of NSA substrates catalyzed by Co@NC-B-800 catalyst also shows excellent performance.