(695c) Palladium-Iron Bimetallic Catalyst: High Activity and Stability for Aqueous Phase Hydrogenations

A novel palladium-iron bimetallic catalyst was synthesized that provided high hydrogenation activity and stability relative to palladium only under harsh hydrothermal conditions. To generate the catalyst, palladium was dispersed on carbon coated silica, which was doped with iron. The catalyst was applied to the hydrogenation of carbonyl groups in acetone, 2-pentanone, and propionaldehyde. The Pd-Fe catalyst gave more than a three-fold higher hydrogenation activity than the nanoparticle Pd only counterpart, while Fe nanoparticles were shown to be inert. The synthesis procedure was optimized for the bimetallic material, which demonstrated that the introduction of Fe contributed to a higher turnover frequency rather than simply increases the number of active sites. Interestingly, the same synthesis procedure was used to synthesize a Pd-Mo bimetallic catalyst that also increased activity.