Synthesis N-Doped Ni@C-PTA-N- T Catalysts for Highly Selective Hydrogenation of Phenol to Cyclohexanol

A facile and simple approach for the synthesis of N-doped porous carbon supported Ni composites (Ni@C-PTA-N) from Ni-MOF-PTA-N was proposed. And the as-prepared Ni@C-PTA-N- T composites with different pyrolysis temperatures ( T ) were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effect of T on the selective hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanol over Ni@C-PTA-N- T was studied. Results showed that the Ni@C-PTA-N-450 obtained at pyrolysis temperature of 450°C had the best hydrogenation performance. It showed 98.0% phenol conversion with 100% cyclohexanol selectivity under mild conditions within 2 h. This can be attributed to the uniformly dispersed smaller Ni nanoparticles owing to doping of N, and the strong interaction between the metal Ni to N–C support, which can facilitate H 2 spillover on surface of catalyst.