Template-Oriented Synthesis of Fe–N-Codoped Graphene Nanoshells Derived from Petroleum Pitch for Efficient Nitroaromatics Reduction

In this study, we demonstrate noble metal-free Fe–N-codoped graphene nanoshells (Fe–N/GNS) derived from petroleum pitch as highly efficient and cost-effective catalysts for nitroaromatics reduction. By employing α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles simultaneously as both the hard template and the metal source, Fe–N/GNS can be facilely synthesized through the template-oriented method, followed by thermal annealing with urea for nitrogen doping. Owing to the high-dispersed synergetic Fe–N active sites as well as the hierarchical porous nanoshell structure, the Fe–N/GNS catalysts show remarkable catalytic performance and good tolerance for the reduction of nitroaromatics with NaBH4 aqueous solution. The optimized Fe–N/GNS-800 corresponds to pseudo-first-order kinetics for p-nitrophenol reduction at room temperature, with the rate constant (k) reaching 1.23 min–1. The reinforced structure also allows the catalyst to be readily recycled a dozen times without activity deterioration. This work may provide a new avenue to facilely fabricate cost-effective but powerful catalysts for nitroaromatics reduction and beyond.