Water-dispersible Hollow Microporous Organic Network Spheres as Substrate for Electroless Deposition of Ultrafine Pd Nanoparticles with High Catalytic Activity and Recyclability

Microporous organic networks (MONs) have been considered as an ideal substrate to stabilize active metal nanoparticles. However, the development of highly water-dispersible hollow MONs nanostructures which can serve as both the reducing agent and stabilizer is highly desirable but still challenging. Here we report a template-assisted method to synthesize hollow microporous organic network (H-MON) spheres using silica spheres as hard template and 1,3,5-triethynylbenzene as the building blocks through a Glaser coupling reaction. The obtained water-dispersible H-MON spheres bearing sp- and sp(2)-hybridized carbon atoms possess a highly conjugated electronic structure and show low reduction potential; thus, they can serve as a reducing agent and stabilizer for electroless deposition of highly dispersed Pd clusters to form a Pd/H-MON spherical hollow nanocomposite. Benefitting from their high porosity, large surface area, and excellent solution dispersibility, the as-prepared Pd/H-MON hollow nanocomposite exhibits a high catalytic performance and recyclability toward the reduction of 4-nitrophenol.