Effective Mn Doping of Co3O4 to Improve the Catalytic Performance of Co3O4/N-doped Carbon toward Hydrogenation Reduction Reaction of p-Nitrophenol

This work reports that 5% amount of Mn doping of Co3O4 can greatly improve catalytic performance of Co3O4/N-doped carbon (Co3O4/NC) catalysts toward hydrogenation reaction of p-nitrophenol by using NaBH4 as reducing agent. Mn doping can cause formation of Co vacancy or oxygen vacancy without changing the crystalline structure of Co3O4. The 5%Mn-doped Co3O4/NC has a high activity parameter of 173 s−1 ·g−1 when the molar ratio of NaBH4:p-nitrophenol is 100:1, while the un-doped Co3O4/NC catalyst has a low parameter of 37.0 s−1 ·g−1. Doping of Co3O4 with 5% amount of Mn element can greatly enhance the catalytic performance of Co3O4/N-doped carbon catalysts toward hydrogenation reduction reaction of p-nitrophenol. The catalytic activity parameter of 5% Mn-doped Co3O4/N-doped carbon catalyst is 4.67 times than that of un-doped Co3O4/N-doped carbon catalyst.