Dual-atom Pt heterogeneous catalyst with excellent catalytic performances for the selective hydrogenation and epoxidation.

Atomically monodispersed heterogeneous catalysts with uniform active sites and high atom utilization efficiency are ideal heterogeneous catalytic materials. Designing such type of catalysts, however, remains a formidable challenge. Herein, using a wet-chemical method, we successfully achieved a mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (mpg-C3N4) supported dual-atom Pt2 catalyst, which exhibited excellent catalytic performance for the highly selective hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline. The conversion of ˃99% is significantly superior to the corresponding values of mpg-C3N4-supported single Pt atoms and ultra-small Pt nanoparticles (~2 nm). First-principles calculations revealed that the excellent and unique catalytic performance of the Pt2 species originates from the facile H2 dissociation induced by the diatomic characteristics of Pt and the easy desorption of the aniline product. The produced Pt2/mpg-C3N4 samples are versatile and can be applied in catalyzing other important reactions, such as the selective hydrogenation of benzaldehyde and the epoxidation of styrene.