Selective hydrogenation with supported metal catalysts widely used in the production of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals often faces a trade-off between activity and selectivity, mainly due to the inability to adjust one factor of the active sites without affecting other factors. In order to solve this bottleneck problem, the modulation of the microenvironment of active sites has attracted more and more attention, inspired by the collaborative catalytic mode of enzymes. In this perspective, we aim to summarize recent advances in the regulation of the microenvironment surrounding supported metal nanoparticles (NPs) using porous materials enriched with organic functional groups. Insights on how the microenvironment induces the enrichment, oriented adsorption and activation of substrates through non-covalent interaction and thus determines the hydrogenation activity and selectivity will be particularly discussed. Finally, a brief summary will be provided, and challenges together with a perspective in microenvironment engineering will be proposed.
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