Hydrogenation of Cinnamaldehyde to Hydrocinnamyl Alcohol on Pt/Graphite Catalyst

Chemoselectivity is a cornerstone of catalysis, permitting the targeted modification of specific functional groups within complex starting materials. Herein, we elucidate key structural and electronic factors in converting cinnamaldehyde to related hydrocinnamyl alcohol over Pt/graphite composites. Pt/graphite composites were prepared by a facile hydrothermal method, and performed excellent catalytic performance and selectivity in cinnamaldehyde conversion. When the ratio of Pt loading reaches 4%, cinnamaldehyde conversion is 97.3%, and the yield of hydrocinnamyl alcohol is 94.6%, with the selectivity high to 97.2%. Besides graphite, other support materials (BN, SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3, activated carbon, graphene and g-C3N4), are also investigated to probe the reaction mechanism. This work indicates that the chemoselective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde over supported Pt catalyst can be flexibly controlled by tuning Pt loading amount and support materials.