Well-constructed Ni@CN material derived from di-ligands Ni-MOF to catalyze mild hydrogenation of nitroarenes

1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate (BTC) and 4,4′-bipyridine (BIPY) are employed in the synthesis of dual ligands Ni-MOFs. The magnetic Ni@CN nanocatalyst is prepared by direct pyrolysis of Ni-MOFs in N 2 atmosphere, which exhibited excellent activity in selective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene (NB) to aniline (AN) at 60 °C, 2.0 MPa H 2 . The conversion of NB can reach 99.1 mol%, and the selectivity of AN is over 99 %. A series of characterizations are obtained by XRD, Raman, XPS, SEM, TEM, TPR and TGA. It is found that the synergic effect of Ni species and N contributes to the increase of catalytic activity of the catalyst. Cycling tests proved that the prepared catalyst could be reused ten times without a visible reduction in catalytic activity of hydrogenation. The excellent stability and activity of Ni@CN nanocatalyst could be assigned to the porosity of carbon material doped with nitrogen, derived from dual ligands Ni-MOFs.