A novel strategy for producing highly dispersed Pd particles on ZIF-8 through the occupation and unoccupation of carboxyl groups and its application in selective diene hydrogenation

•ZIF-8 was functionalized by the carboxyl groups incorporated into its ligand.•Highly dispersed Pd was obtained via occupation and unoccupation of carboxyl groups.•The Pd/FZIF-8 showed excellent activity and selectivity for diene hydrogenation.

We proposed a novel strategy for producing highly dispersed Pd particles on ZIF-8 via the anchoring effect of the carboxyl groups incorporated into the ligand of ZIF-8. The as-synthesized Pd nanoparticles supported on the in situ carboxyl-functionalized ZIF-8 showed excellent activity and selectivity for diene hydrogenation due to the high dispersion of Pd nanoparticles and the interaction between the Pd nanoparticles and carboxyl groups. This method opens a new and simple route for greatly improving the dispersion of supported Pd nanoparticles.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (199 K)Download as PowerPoint slide