Effect of Hydrotalcites Interlayer Water on Pt-Catalyzed Aqueous-Phase Selective Hydrogenation of Cinnamaldehyde

The heterogeneous hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated compounds requires understanding of the structure–activity relationship of metallic catalysts in consideration of solvent-mediated processes. In this work, a CoAl hydrotalcites (CoAl-HTs)-supported Pt nanoparticle catalyst is employed to study the effect of solvent water and HTs interlayer water on the aqueous-phase selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde (CALD). Pt/Co2Al1-HTs catalyst displays 5075 h–1 of specific reaction rate and 89% of C═O hydrogenation selectivity at 80 °C under 20 bar of H2. Combined results of isotope-labeling experiments and theoretical DFT calculations demonstrate that the water-mediated hydrogen-exchange pathway exists in the reaction with a relatively lower-energy barrier in comparison to the direct H2-dissociated hydrogenation pathway. The results also reveal that the interlayer water species of HTs support participate in the hydrogen-exchange reaction. Based on the H2–D2 exchange results, these HTs interlayer water species can promote H2 activation and dissociation processes and thus accelerate the CALD hydrogenation reaction even under solvent-free conditions.