MOF-Derived Cobalt Phosphide/Carbon Nanocubes for Selective Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes to Anilines

Transition-metal phosphides have received tremendous attention during the past few years because they are earth-abundant, cost-effective, and show outstanding catalytic performance in several electrochemically driven conversions including hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution, and water splitting. As one member of the transition-metal phosphides, Co_x P-based materials have been widely explored as electrocatalyts; however, their application in the traditional thermal catalysis are rarely reported. In this work, cobalt phosphide/carbon nanocubes are designed and their catalytic activity for the selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes to anilines is studied. A high surface area metal-organic framework (MOF), ZIF-67, is infused with red phosphorous, and then pyrolysis promotes the facile production of the phosphide-based catalysts. The resulting composite, consisting of Co₂ P/CN_x nanocubes, is shown to exhibit excellent catalytic performance in the selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes to anilines. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing catalytic activity of a cobalt phosphide in nitroarenes hydrogenation.