In-Situ investigation of the catalytic hydrogenation reaction of 4-nitrothiophenol by using single Pt@Au nanowires as a new platform

Investigating the kinetics and mechanisms of catalytic hydrogenation reaction is important for fundamental research and chemical engineering, especially at single nanowire/nanoparticle level. In this work, we constructed a dual-functional single Pt@Au nanowire (Pt@Au NW) reaction platform, which was used for in-situ monitoring the p-nitrothiophenol (4-NTP) catalytic reduction process by using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and UV–vis spectroscopy. The conversion of reactants and intermediates as well as the product generation during the reaction process were analyzed carefully, and the influencing factors of temperature and light were also discussed. Moreover, the density functional theory (DFT) was used to further investigate the effect of the single Pt@Au NW on catalytic hydrogenation reaction of 4-NTP. The results show that the single Pt@Au NW can be a good platform for in-situ monitoring catalytic hydrogenation reaction of 4-NTP with excellent catalytic activity, high stability, and good reproducibility, and clarified that trans-dimercaptoazobenzene ( trans-DMAB) intermediates were produced that are further converted to the p-aminothiophenol (4-ATP). The work will not only give researchers new insights into the combination of the single nanowire/nanoparticle with spectroscopic techniques, but may also inspire further in-depth studies of multifunctional catalysts for catalytic hydrogenation reaction at single entity level.