Direct Synthesis and Catalytic Application of Ordered Mesoporous Ru/C Composites with Homogeneously Dispersed Ruthenium Nanoclusters.

ABSTRACT

Direct synthesis of metal/carbon nanocomposites with ordered mesoporous frameworks has attracted increasing interest in various applications including catalysis, optics, and electronics. Herein, we demonstrate a simple one-pot co-assembly route to synthesize Ru/carbon composites by using resol, ruthenium chloride, and Pluronic F127 as a template with the assistance of 8-hydroxyquinoline. 8-Hydroxyquinoline exerts a significant influence on the mesostructure ordering and specific surface area of the Ru/carbon composites. The obtained Ru/carbon materials show well-ordered hexagonal arrays of mesopores with homogeneously dispersed sub-2 nm Ru nanoclusters throughout the carbon frameworks, which can efficiently and quantitatively hydrogenated nitrobenzene to aniline with H2 in the absence of solvent for multiple recycling runs without loss of activity.