A simple and reproducible method for the synthesis of silica-supported rhodium nanoparticles and their investigation in the hydrogenation of aromatic compounds

Article abstract of DOI:10.1039/b605893k

Colloidal suspensions of rhodium nanoparticles have been easily prepared in aqueous solution by chemical reduction of the precursor RhCl ₃·3H₂O in the presence of the surfactant N,N-dimethyl-N-cetyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium chloride (HEA16Cl) and further used to immobilize rhodium nanoparticles on silica by simple impregnation. The obtained silica-supported rhodium nanoparticles have been investigated by adapted characterization methods such as transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A particle size increase from 2.4 to 5 nm after the silica immobilization step and total elimination of the surfactant has been observed. This "heterogeneous" catalyst displayed good activities for the hydrogenation of mono-, di- alkylsubstituted and/or functionalized aromatic derivatives in water under atmospheric hydrogen pressure and at room temperature. In all cases, the catalyst could be recovered several times after a simple decantation or filtration and reused without any significant loss in catalytic activity. This supported catalyst has also been tested under higher hydrogen pressure giving rise to TOFs reaching 6430 h ^-1 at 30 bar and in terms of catalytic lifetime 30 000 TTO in 8.5 h for pure anisole hydrogenation at 40 bar. the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 2006.