Highly active, ultra-low loading single-atom iron catalysts for catalytic transfer hydrogenation.

ABSTRACT: Highly effective and selective noble metal-free catalysts attract significant attention. Here, a single-atom iron catalyst is fabricated by saturated adsorption of trace iron onto zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) followed by pyrolysis. Its performance toward catalytic transfer hydrogenation of furfural is comparable to state-of-the-art catalysts and up to four orders higher than other Fe catalysts. Isotopic labeling experiments demonstrate an intermolecular hydride transfer mechanism. First principles simulations, spectroscopic calculations and experiments, and kinetic correlations reveal that the synthesis creates pyrrolic Fe(II)-plN₃ as the active center whose flexibility manifested by being pulled out of the plane, enabled by defects, is crucial for collocating the re

SUBMITTER: An Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10589291 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature