Design of a palladium-nickel alloy/nickel nitride interface for selective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene catalysis

Designing the interface structure in metal-supported catalysts has been a central challenge in realizing the high efficiency of selective catalysis. Herein, we demonstrate that interfacial charge redistribution at the interface of heterostructured PdNi&Ni3N enables selective catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene into azo compounds. Contrarily, the PdNi alloy alone catalyzes the conversion of nitrobenzene into aniline, and the Ni3N support was almost powerless to catalyze the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene under the same conditions. Interfacial charge redistribution at the interface of PdNi&Ni3N, as evidenced by the X-ray photon spectroscopy results and theoretical calculations, results in a change in the adsorption energy of the organic reaction intermediates, thus altering the hydrogenation reaction pathway to achieve selective production of azo compounds. We believe that this study not only highlights the importance of interface structure in selective catalytic hydrogenation reactions but also inspires more scientific interest in heterostructured metal (alloy)/transition metal nitrides catering to the field of catalysis.