Highly Selective Hydrogenation of Phenol Catalyzed by Porous BN Supported Ni−Pd Catalysts

Abstract Phenol, as a phenolic organic substance, is widely present in industrial wastewater and is an important organic pollutant. Porous boron nitride (p‐BN) is an ideal material as catalyst support because it has a large specific surface area and a variety of pore structures. In this paper, a series of Ni−Pd/p‐BN catalysts were prepared by precipitation method. Meanwhile, the catalytic performance of the catalysts for the hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanol was systematical and comprehensive studied. Significantly, with the optimal catalyst, the conversion of phenol was greatly improved to reach more than 99.9 %, and the selectivity of cyclohexanol could almost exceed 99.8 %. In addition, the Ni−Pd/p‐BN catalyst can be reused as an effective catalyst for numerous cycles, indicating superior reusability and recyclability. After five cycles, the conversion of phenol and the selectivity of cyclohexanol is only reduced to ∼80 %. This catalyst will be a promising material in the field of industrial catalysis applications.