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Liu et al. Chem Synth 2023;3:24 Chemical Synthesis
DOI: 10.20517/cs.2023.13

Research Article Open Access

Active Pd nanoclusters supported on

nitrogen/amino co-functionalized carbon for highly
efficient dehydrogenation of formic acid

2
1,#
1,*
2,#
1
2
Dan Liu , Cheng Zhou , Ge Wang , Yong Li , Zhimao Yang , Chuncai Kong , Ben Liu 3,*
1
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Shaanxi Province
Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an
710049, Shaanxi, China.
2
Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing 100190, China.
3
Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University,
Chengdu 610064, Sichuan, China.
#
Authors contributed equally.
*Correspondence to: Prof. Ben Liu, Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology of Ministry of Education, College of
Chemistry, Sichuan University, Wangjiang Road No. 29, Chengdu 610064, Sichuan, China. E-mail: ben.liu@scu.edu.cn; Prof.
Chuncai Kong, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Non-equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter,
Shaanxi Province Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, Xian Ning West Road No.28, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, China. E-mail: kongcc@xjtu.edu.cn
How to cite this article: Liu D, Zhou C, Wang G, Li Y, Yang Z, Kong C, Liu B. Active Pd nanoclusters supported on
nitrogen/amino co-functionalized carbon for highly efficient dehydrogenation of formic acid. Chem Synth 2023;3:24.
https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/cs.2023.13
Received: 1 Mar 2023 First Decision: 6 Apr 2023 Revised: 19 Apr 2023 Accepted: 27 Apr 2023 Published: 15 May 2023

Academic Editors: Bao-Lian Su, Wei Li, Chen Wang Copy Editor: Dong-Li Li Production Editor: Dong-Li Li

Abstract
Supported noble metal catalysts have exhibited satisfactory catalytic performance in the dehydrogenation of liquid
chemical hydrogen carriers, in which the supports play a paramount role in conditioning the nature of the active
center and thus improving the overall reactivity. Herein, the specially designed nitrogen/amino co-functionalized
carbon (NH -NC) supports are prepared to load active Pd nanoclusters for efficient dehydrogenation of formic acid
2
(FA). The nitrogen/amino co-functionalization of carbon not only facilitates the Pd nanoclusters evenly dispersed
with a mean size of 1.4 nm, but also provides a beneficial metal-support interaction to promote FA
dehydrogenation. The as-prepared Pd@NH -NC discloses a 100% conversion of FA into CO and H with a
2 2 2
-1
-1
remarkable initial turnover frequency (TOF ) of 4,892 h and a low activation energy (E ) of 28.5 kJ mol without
initial a
additive at 298 K. The work proposes a co-functionalization strategy to reasonably design supports for
heterogeneous catalysts and may be extended to develop other multi-functionalized supports with different
compositions and nanostructures.

© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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