N-doped graphene confined Pt nanoparticles for efficient semi-hydrogenation of phenylacetylene

N-doped graphene (N-graphene) confined Pt nanoparticles (NPs) with core-shell structure supported on carbon nanotubes (CN@Pt/CNTs) are prepared by a facile two-step process. The obtained N-graphene nanoshell ranging from 2 to 4 graphene layers and the Pt NPs covered within N-graphene are uniformly dispersed on the CNTs. The as-prepared CN@Pt/CNTs exhibits much higher styrene selectivity and robust recycle ability in selective hydrogenation of phenylacetylene, compared with that of traditional CNTs supported Pt NPs (Pt/CNTs). DFT calculation reveals that the high styrene selectivity is derived from the confinement effect of N-graphene, which facilitates desorption of styrene from Pt NPs surface, avoiding the over hydrogenation of styrene to benzylethane. The present method paves a new way to design high selective Pt based hydrogenation catalyst. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.