Cu nanoparticles embedded on reticular chitosan-derived N-doped carbon: Application to the catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes, alkynes and N-heteroarenes

• Synthesis of highly loaded divided Cu NPs embedded N-containing carbon. • Nitrogen content control in N-carbon using melamine as supplementary source of N in addition to chitosan. • Control of Cu NP particle size through EDTA additive added to the synthesis media of carbon. • Efficient hydrogenation of alkenes, alkynes and N-heteroarenes with Cu-catalyst. Applying biomass-waste as catalysts and catalytic supports is gaining a tremendous interest owing to its expected outcomes in terms of cost effectiveness and sustainability. In this context, we herein disclose a straightforward encapsulation of nanosized copper on hierarchically porous, biomass-derived nitrogen-containing carbon framework. Our approach uses chitosan - derived from the marine shell-fish wastes - as a cheap, sustainable carbon and nitrogen source, melamine as nitrogen provider and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid as a cross-linker to induce the reticular network, much suitable for restricting the growth of the metal seeds. The resulting copper grown on nitrogen-doped carbon, bearing relatively large surface area (106 m 2 ·g −1 ) and a large group of well-dispersed Cu nanoparticles (average of 2 nm) even with high Cu loading (41 wt%), exhibits catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of unsaturated double and triple carbon-carbon bonds and heteroaryles. This sustainable design of catalyst, using affordable copper and cheap biowaste, could discard palladium and other expensive elements loaded on tedious synthetic supports from the library of heterogeneous solids intended for fine chemical synthesis.