The hydrogenation of nitroarenes mediated by platinum nanoparticles: an overview

Hydrogenation of nitroarenes is a catalytic reaction of high interest owing to the importance of the resulting anilines for the chemical industry. For this transformation, a huge number of catalysts based on different metals have been reported so far. However, the chemoselective reduction of the nitro group when other reducible functionalities are present in the nitroaromatic substrates remains a challenging goal, and significant effort has been devoted to the development of more selective catalysts. In this context, metal nanoparticles (MNPs) have emerged as a good alternative to molecular complexes, and much attention is currently paid to their synthesis in order to achieve efficient and selective nanocatalysts. Non-supported and supported nanoparticles have been used for this catalytic reaction, and among them, platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) appear as promising catalysts, due to the fact that they combine a good activity in nitro reduction while keeping a certain degree of selectivity. Herein, the most recent advances related to the preparation and application of PtNPs as catalysts in the hydrogenation of nitroaromatics are reviewed.