Uniformly dispersed Pd nanoparticles on nitrogen-doped carbon nanospheres for aerobic benzyl alcohol oxidation

Maintaining the dispersion and stability of supported metals is still an important issue for solid catalysts that suffer from aggregation or leaching. We report an easy procedure for the preparation of Pd nanoparticles supported on carbon nanospheres by the direct pyrolysis of the metal precursor impregnated on polybenzoxazine-based polymer nanospheres. The complexation interaction between the metal and support was beneficial for the dispersion and stability of the Pd nanoparticles. Pd nanoparticles with an average size of 3 nm were uniformly dispersed on the carbon nanospheres after a thermal treatment at 500 °C under argon flow. The catalyst was evaluated for aerobic benzyl alcohol oxidation under mild conditions without using a base additive. In order to get mostly outer surface Pd nanoparticles, the catalyst preparation conditions were investigated by varying the metal loading and loading time. The highest catalytic activity reached a TOF of 690 h −1 when the catalyst was prepared under the optimized conditions. The catalyst also showed good recyclability and can be easily regenerated by calcination at 200 °C.