The reduction of nitro compounds to the corresponding amines is one of the most utilized catalytic processes in the fine and bulk chemical industry. The latest development of catalysts with cheap metals like Fe, Co, Ni and Cu has led to their tremendous achievements over the last years prompting to their greater application as "standard" catalysts. In this review we will comprehensively discuss the use of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts based on non-noble 3d-metals for the reduction of nitro compounds using various reductants. The different systems will be revised considering both the catalytic performances and synthetic aspects highlighting also their advantages and disadvantages.

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.Abstract: Ar-BIANs and related α-diimine Co complexes were wet impregnated onto Vulcan® XC 72 R carbon black powder and used as precursors for the synthesis of heterogeneous supported nanoscale catalysts by pyrolysis under argon at 800 °C. The catalytic materials feature a core-shell structure composed of metallic Co and Co oxides decorated with nitrogen-doped graphitic layers (NGr). These catalysts display high activity in the liquid phase hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds (110 °C, 50 bar H2) to give chemoselectively substituted aryl amines. The catalytic activity is closely related to the amount and type of nitrogen atoms in the final catalytic material, which suggests a heterolytic activation of dihydrogen.Keywords: cobalt, hydrogenation, nitro compounds, kinetic, heterolytic activation IntroductionCatalysis is a key-technology for the manufacturing of all kinds of bulk and fine chemical products. It allows for producing chemicals avoiding the formation of undesired and useless stoichiometric side products which leads to additional cost and energy consumption [1][2][3]. Many of the industrially relevant catalytic processes in the fine chemical industry are still based on expensive and rare late transition metals such as Pd, Pt, Rh, Ru and Ir [4,[1][2][3][4][5]. Although these metals exhibit very good catalytic performance for advanced organic substrates, the decreasing availability of these elements requires the development of efficient alternative metal-based catalysts [6]. In this regard, the design of catalytic systems based on abundant and biocompatible metals is an important goal for the implementation and progress of green and sustainable chemistry. Hence, transition metals such as Fe, Co and Cu are ideal candidates, which meet these requirements [7][8][9][10]. As a matter of fact, these elements are among the most abundant metals in the Earth's upper crust, thus being readily accessible [11]. Recently, heteroatom-doped carbon materials attracted major interest in the field of metal supported heterogeneous catalysts for both chemical synthesis [12][13][14] and/or energy-relevant transformations [15,16]. Indeed, doping graphene with heteroatoms such as N, B, P, or S leads to a radical modification of the electronic properties of both the support and the supported metal [17][18][19]. Consequently, it is possible to modify the activity and adjust the selectivity of the final catalytic material towards the desired transformation. Among the various dopants, nitrogen attracted most interest [15,[20][21][22]. and applications of transition metal/N-doped graphene (NGr) based catalytic systems ranges from oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) [23][24][25][26], hydrogen evolving reactions (HER) [27,28], photocatalysis [29,30], oxidation [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], and reduction [39][40][41][42][43][44] reactions of organic

The synthesis of novel nanoparticles is of general importance for the development of efficient heterogeneous catalysts. Herein, the preparation of carbon‐supported nickel‐based nanoparticles (NPs), modified by nitrogen‐doped graphene layers, is reported for the first time. The resulting materials were characterized in detail by TEM, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), XRD, elemental analysis (EA), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), temperature‐programmed reduction (TPR), BET, and Raman analysis. Initial catalytic tests revealed the potential of this class of compounds in hydrogenation reactions.