Graphene-supported Pd catalyst for highly selective hydrogenation of resorcinol to 1, 3-cyclohexanedione through giant π-conjugate interactions

Zuojun Wei; Ruofei Pan; Yaxin Hou; Yao Yang; Yingxin Liu

doi:10.1038/srep15664

Graphene-supported Pd catalyst for highly selective hydrogenation of resorcinol to 1, 3-cyclohexanedione through giant π-conjugate interactions

Sci Rep. 2015 Oct 23:5:15664. doi: 10.1038/srep15664.

Authors

Zuojun Wei¹, Ruofei Pan¹, Yaxin Hou¹, Yao Yang¹, Yingxin Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
² College of Pharmaceutical Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310032, China.

Abstract

The selective hydrogenation of resorcinol (RES) to 1, 3-cyclohexanedione (1,3-CHD) without the addition of alkali is a big challenge. In this article, a novel reduced graphene oxide (rGO) supported Pd catalyst was prepared through co-reduction method, over which we obtained 99.9% of resorcinol conversion and 94.2% of the ever-reported highest 1,3-cyclohexanedione selectivity at 25 °C in only CH2Cl2 solvent. The excellent selectivity was contributed to the strong π-π and p-π interactions between the graphene nanosheet and the benzene ring as well as hydroxyl in RES molecule. The followed adsorption experiment and Raman analysis also showed the existence of aromatic graphite structures in rGO, which exhibited stronger adsorption towards RES than towards 1,3-CHD.

Publication types

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