Encapsulating Pd/g-C3N4 with acrylic acid to enhance the catalytic partial hydrogenation performance of isoprene

The stabilization and transport of the reactants, intermediates and products are significant to rational design of an industrial catalyst. In this work, we encapsulated the surface of Pd/g-C 3 N 4 catalyst with acrylic acid (AA) using a photo-induced grafting method to mimic the 3-dimensional nature of enzymes. A combined characterization and ab initio calculation revealed that AA ligands on the surface controlled the adsorption and diffusion behaviors of the reactants, rather than alter the electronic or geometric properties of Pd active centers. The optimized catalyst (Pd/CNA-4) significantly enhances isoprene partial hydrogenation activity without a decline in semi-hydrogenation selectivity. This approach can be further optimized by changing the types of the encapsulating ligands and can meet other specific catalytic reactions to regulate their conversion and selectivity and is therefore expected to extend to other areas of heterogeneous catalysis .