Selective Semihydrogenation of Alkynes Catalyzed by Pd Nanoparticles Immobilized on Heteroatom-Doped Hierarchical Porous Carbon Derived from Bamboo Shoots

Highly dispersed palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) immobilized on heteroatom-doped hierarchical porous carbon supports (N,O-carbon) with large specific surface areas are synthesized by a wet chemical reduction method. The N,O-carbon derived from naturally abundant bamboo shoots is fabricated by a tandem hydrothermal-carbonization process without assistance of any templates, chemical activation reagents, or exogenous N or O sources in a simple and ecofriendly manner. The prepared Pd/N,O-carbon catalyst shows extremely high activity and excellent chemoselectivity for semihydrogenation of a broad range of alkynes to versatile and valuable alkenes under ambient conditions. The catalyst can be readily recovered for successive reuse with negligible loss in activity and selectivity, and is also applicable for practical gram-scale reactions.