Ni nanoparticles decorated Ni–N–C catalyst: Dual‐site synergy for enhanced catalytic hydrogenation

Abstract It is highly desired but still challenging to engineer single‐atom catalysts featuring an M–N–C configuration for efficient catalytic hydrogenation. Herein, Ni nanoparticles (Ni NPs) modified Ni–N–C (termed as Ni 1+NPs /NSPC) were fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility of enhancing the catalytic hydrogenation performance of M–N–C by introducing metallic NPs sites. Ni NPs sites and Ni 1 sites displayed a synergistic effect: Ni NPs promote the dissociation of H 2 in a homolytic manner with a lower barrier energy than the heterolytic one that occurred on Ni 1 sites, whereas Ni 1 could burden the activation of substrates. The active H atoms generated at Ni NPs migrate to Ni 1 sites to complete hydrogenation. Consequently, Ni 1+NPs /NSPC catalysts were empowered with excellent hydrogenation performance; they can be applied to a series of hydrogenation substrates (e.g., nitro compounds, furfural, quinine, and cyanophenyl) affording high conversion (95.1%–99.9%) and selectivity (96.8%–99.9%).