Ru nanoparticles stabilized by poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) grafted onto silica: Very active and stable catalysts for hydrogenation of aromatics

Poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) was successfully grafted onto silica by a two-step method developed in this work. The Ru nanoparticles/silica composites were fabricated using the PVP-modified silica. Nitrogen adsorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques were used to characterize the nanocomposites. The results showed that Ru nanoparticles with the size of about 2–5 nm that possessed high crystallinity were immobilized on the silica grafted by PVP. The hydrogenation of aromatics was studied using the nanocomposites as the catalyst. It was found that the catalyst was very active for the reactions, and was very stable due to the stabilizer PVP grafted on the surface of the silica.

Graphical abstractPVP is grafted on the surface of silica chemically. Ru nanocatalysts supported on the PVP-modified silica exhibit very high catalytic activity for solvent-free hydrogenation of aromatics. In addition, the catalysts are very stable, can be easily separated from the products and reused, and the support is widely available and cheap.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (123 K)Download as PowerPoint slide