Cobalt-Based Active Sites Embedded in Hollow Porous Carbon Nanocages for the Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes

In the field of heterogeneous catalysis, more and more attention has been paid to the design of non-noble metal-based catalysts with high activity and selectivity. Herein, we design and successfully fabricate a variety of Co-based catalysts dispersed on a hollow nanosphere. As expected, Co sites are uniformly embedded in the porous carbon, and then, the porous carbon assembles in a large hollow cage, namely, as Co/HCS-800. Experimental characterizations and results express that the hollow structure facilitates substrate enrichment and easy accessibility, which endowed Co/HCS-800 with amazing catalytic performance for the hydrogenation of nitro-compounds under mild conditions.