Carboxylic acid Functionalized Cage‐Type Mesoporous Silica FDU‐12 as Support for Controlled Synthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Applications

Abstract Carboxylic acid functionalized 3D cage‐type mesoporous silica FDU‐12 with high surface area and pore volume was synthesized by a one‐pot co‐condensation method and used as support to synthesize Pt nanoparticles (NPs). The uniformly distributed COOH groups in the cage can control the growth of Pt NPs with high dispersion (Pt@CF‐12). Pt@CF‐12 was used as catalyst for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane to generate H 2 and for the reduction of 4‐nitrophenol to 4‐aminophenol. The catalyst exhibits higher catalytic activity (H 2 generation rate of 17.8 L min −1 ) and lower activation energy of 30.67 kJ mol −1 compared with other Pt‐based silica catalysts due to the small size of the Pt NPs (3.5 nm) and cage‐type porous structure of the support, which allowed easy diffusion of reactants. Pt@CF‐12 has excellent durability, since the support prevented NP aggregation and leaching of NPs during catalysis. Pt@CF‐12 can convert 93 % of 4‐nitrophenol to 4‐aminophenol within 10 min.