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Mesoporous Metal–Metalloid Amorphous Alloys: The First Synthesis of Open 3D Mesoporous Ni‐B Amorphous Alloy Spheres via a Dual Chemical Reduction Method
Author(s) -
Kang Yunqing,
Henzie Joel,
Gu Huajun,
Na Jongbeom,
Fatehmulla Amanullah,
Shamsan Belqes Saeed A.,
Aldhafiri Abdullah M.,
Farooq W. Aslam,
Bando Yoshio,
Asahi Toru,
Jiang Bo,
Li Hexing,
Yamauchi Yusuke
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201906707
Subject(s) - mesoporous material , materials science , amorphous solid , amorphous metal , metalloid , catalysis , mesoporous organosilica , nickel , alloy , chemical engineering , nanoparticle , boron , transition metal , metal , inorganic chemistry , mesoporous silica , nanotechnology , metallurgy , organic chemistry , chemistry , engineering
Selective hydrogenation of nitriles is an industrially relevant synthetic route for the preparation of primary amines. Amorphous metal–boron alloys have a tunable, glass‐like structure that generates a high concentration of unsaturated metal surface atoms that serve as active sites in hydrogenation reactions. Here, a method to create nanoparticles composed of mesoporous 3D networks of amorphous nickel–boron (Ni‐B) alloy is reported. The hydrogenation of benzyl cyanide to β‐phenylethylamine is used as a model reaction to assess catalytic performance. The mesoporous Ni‐B alloy spheres have a turnover frequency value of 11.6 h −1 , which outperforms non‐porous Ni‐B spheres with the same composition. The bottom‐up synthesis of mesoporous transition metal–metalloid alloys expands the possible reactions that these metal architectures can perform while simultaneously incorporating more Earth‐abundant catalysts.