Magnetically Recoverable Nanoflake-Shaped Iron Oxide/Pt Heterogeneous Catalysts and Their Excellent Catalytic Performance in the Hydrogenation Reaction

In this study, a kind of unique Fe2O3/Pt hybrid consisting of uniform platinum nanoparticles deposited on a nanoflake-shaped Fe2O3 support was prepared by using a solvothermal reaction followed by a heat-induced reduction process. The prepared Fe2O3 sample displays well-defined nanoflake-like morphology; remarkably, there are many specific cavities on its surface. In addition, uniform Pt nanoparticles with narrow size distribution were deposited onto the surface of the preformed flake-like Fe2O3 support to form the Fe2O3/Pt hybrid via a facile heat-induced reduction reaction. Thus, the prepared Fe2O3/Pt hybrid can serve as heterogeneous catalyst over the hydrogenation reaction. Results demonstrated that the specific Fe2O3/Pt heterogeneous catalyst exhibits good catalytic performances, including high conversion, specific selectivity, and excellent recycling durability, over hydrogenation reactions for different substrates. Furthermore, the prepared Fe2O3/Pt heterogeneous catalyst could be easily separated from the product mixture by using a magnet and could be recycled for 10 cycles without catalytic activity loss. In a word, the present synthetic approach is facile, scalable, and reproducible, which can be easily facilitated to prepare other types of noble metals/metal oxide composite systems.