Ni modified Pd nanoparticles immobilized on hollow nitrogen doped carbon spheres for the simehydrogenation of phenylacetylene.

In this work, Ni modified Pd nanoparticles immobilized on hollow nitrogen doped carbon spheres were successfully prepared, denoted as Pd/Ni-N/C. The Pd/Ni-N/C showed a moderate catalytic activity for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol as a model reaction. When applied for the simehydrogenation of phenylacetylene, the Pd/Ni-N/C exhibited a much better catalytic performance than some other Pd-based catalysts. What's more, the selectivity of styrene could be kept at high levels even when the reaction time was prolonged. The superior catalytic performance may be ascribed to the incorporation of Ni and N species, which were detailedly characterized and contrastively demonstrated. The contained N groups could disperse and stabilize the supported metal nanoparticles. The Pd/Ni-N/C displayed no obvious decrease of catalytic activity and selectivity in the recycling tests, indicating the potential for various industrial applications.