Iron-Based Active Sites Encapsulated in Carbon Nanotubes for an Efficient Hydride Process

Selective and efficient catalytic hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds with multiple groups into target amines under mild conditions is highly desirable yet fairly challenging. Herein, we report a novel iron-based catalyst, which has metal nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated in porous N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCT). The experimental and density functional theory results reveal that the NCT-supported porous structure provides the metal nanoparticles with more accessible active sites, leading to the Fe/Fe5C2@NCT-800 catalyst to show extremely high activity, chemoselectivity, and stability toward the hydrogenation of nitro compounds, affording full conversion within 0.2–0.3 h under room temperature.