Graphenes in the absence of metals as carbocatalysts for selective acetylene hydrogenation and alkene hydrogenation

Ana Primo; Florentina Neatu; Mihaela Florea; Vasile Parvulescu; Hermenegildo Garcia

doi:10.1038/ncomms6291

Graphenes in the absence of metals as carbocatalysts for selective acetylene hydrogenation and alkene hydrogenation

Nat Commun. 2014 Oct 24:5:5291. doi: 10.1038/ncomms6291.

Authors

Ana Primo¹, Florentina Neatu², Mihaela Florea², Vasile Parvulescu², Hermenegildo Garcia³

Affiliations

¹ Instituto Universitario de Tecnología Química CSIC-UPV, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia 46022, Spain.
² Department of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Catalysis, University of Bucharest, Bucharest 030016, Romania.
³ 1] Instituto Universitario de Tecnología Química CSIC-UPV, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia 46022, Spain [2] Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 25342228
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6291

Abstract

Catalysis makes possible a chemical reaction by increasing the transformation rate. Hydrogenation of carbon-carbon multiple bonds is one of the most important examples of catalytic reactions. Currently, this type of reaction is carried out in petrochemistry at very large scale, using noble metals such as platinum and palladium or first row transition metals such as nickel. Catalysis is dominated by metals and in many cases by precious ones. Here we report that graphene (a single layer of one-atom-thick carbon atoms) can replace metals for hydrogenation of carbon-carbon multiple bonds. Besides alkene hydrogenation, we have shown that graphenes also exhibit high selectivity for the hydrogenation of acetylene in the presence of a large excess of ethylene.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't