Although the development of metal nanoparticle catalysts for organic synthesis has been widely studied, the catalytic potential of "metal phosphide nanoparticles" has little been studied. Herein, we describe that nickel phosphide nanoparticles (Ni 2 P NPs) act as a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the selective transformation of biofuranic aldehydes into diketones, which is a useful biorefining technology. The biofuranic aldehydes are hydrogenated in water without any additives, giving the corresponding diketones in high yields. The catalytic performance of Ni 2 P NPs demonstrated here is significantly different from conventional Ni(0) and NiO NPs, and other metal phosphide NPs, which show no activity, indicating the unique catalysis of Ni 2 P NPs. Spectroscopic analyses showed that bifunctional Ni 2 P NP catalysis combining their hydrogen-activating ability and surface acidity plays a crucial role, leading to the transformations of selective biofuranic aldehydes.

A TiO2‐supported, gold nanoparticle catalyst was found to allow the N‐formylation of various amines, including normally unreactive anilines, by using CO2 as the carbonyl source under a H2 atmosphere. A series of reducible functional groups, such as olefins, halogens, carbonyls, carbamates, and cyano moieties, were completely retained during the formylation, which proved the highly selective nature of the formylation reaction. The catalyst was also found to be reusable without any loss of activity or selectivity.

An efficient and sustainable d-sorbitol production viad-glucose hydrogenation was achieved over a hydrotalcite-supported nickel phosphide nanoparticle catalyst with stability, high activity and reusability.

The development of metal phosphide catalysts for organic synthesis is still in its early stages. Herein, we report the successful synthesis of single-crystal cobalt phosphide nanorods (Co 2 P NRs) containing coordinatively unsaturated Co–Co active sites, which serve as a new class of air-stable, highly active, and reusable heterogeneous catalysts for the reductive amination of carbonyl compounds. The Co 2 P NR catalyst showed high activity for the transformation of a broad range of carbonyl compounds to their corresponding primary amines using an aqueous ammonia solution or ammonium acetate as a green amination reagent at 1 bar of H 2 pressure; these conditions are far milder than previously reported. The air stability and high activity of the Co 2 P NRs is noteworthy, as conventional Co catalysts are air-sensitive (pyrophorous) and show no activity for this transformation under mild conditions. P-alloying is therefore of considerable importance for nanoengineering air-stable and highly active non-noble-metal catalysts for organic synthesis.