Iron phosphide nanocrystals for highly active and stable heterogeneous catalysis of liquid-phase hydrogenation of nitrile

Abstract

Abstract Iron-based heterogeneous catalysts are ideal metal catalysts owing to their abundance and low toxicity. However, conventional iron nanoparticle (Fe NP) catalysts exhibit extremely low activity for liquid-phase reactions and lack air stability. Previous attempts to encapsulate Fe NPs in shell materials toward air stability improvement were offset by the low activity of the Fe NPs. To overcome the trade-off between activity and stability in conventional Fe NP catalysts, we developed novel air-stable iron phosphide single nanocrystal (Fe2P NC) catalysts. The Fe2P NC exhibited high activity for liquid-phase nitrile hydrogenation, whereas the conventional Fe NPs demonstrated no activity. Furthermore, the air stability of the Fe2P NC allowed facile immobilization on supports; TiO2 enhanced the Fe2P NC activity. The resulting TiO2-supported Fe2P NC successfully converted various nitriles to primary amines and demonstrated high reusability. The development of air-stable and active Fe2P NC catalysts significantly expands the application scope of iron catalysts.