A facile strategy for incorporation of PtCo alloy into UiO-66-NH2 for cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation

As a material with multifunctional ligands, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can effectively regulate the electronic and geometric state of supported metal nanoparticles (MNPs). Herein, a strategy of PtCo alloy incorporated into UiO-66-NH2 hybrid nanoparticles by a facile one-pot solvothermal method was developed. A series of PtCoy@UiO-66-NH2 materials with different Co/Pt ratios were successfully synthesized using CoO as the cobalt source. The obtained PtCo0.80@UiO-66-NH2 exhibited excellent conversion (94.3%) with high selectivity (93.3%) for selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde (CAL) to cinnamyl alcohol (COL). Moreover, the formation rate of COL achieved to 5 mol·gPt−1·h−1 as Co/Pt atomic ratio was higher than 0.41. The synergistic effect of Pt, Co and UiO-66-NH2 was investigated by various characterizations. The results revealed that the Lewis acid CoNx favored the linear adsorption of CO bond, and PtCo alloy enhanced activity and selectivity by lowering the activation barrier for CO bond activation and simultaneously suppressing adsorption of CC bond.