Fibrous catalyst based on atomic Pd and N-doped holey graphene functionalized cotton fiber for continuous-flow reaction.

ABSTRACT

Continuous-flow catalysis bridges the gap between bench-scale laboratories and production-scale factories and thus should be a green and promising technology for the manufacture of value-added chemicals. Here, we present the construction of a continuous-flow catalytic system by integrating a tubular reactor with novel catalytic fibers, which are comprised of single-atomic Pd (Pd1) and nitrogen-doped holey graphene (NHG) functionalized cotton fibers (CFs). Due to the loosely packed structure, highly exposed dual-active sites (i.e., single-atomic PdN4 sites and activated C sites in the NHG carbocatalyst) of the CF@(Pd1/NHG) catalytic fibers, the corresponding flowing system exhibites remarkably high catalytic performance (activity and durability) and processing rate in organic reactions, including oxidative hydroxylation of phenylboronic acid and reduction of nitroarenes. Typically, the processing rate of the catalytic system toward 4-nitrophenol (a representative nitroarene) reduction can reach up to 2.46 × 10-3 mmol·mg-1·min-1, significantly higher than that of those packing catalysts reported in recent years.