The activation process is a key step
in preparing porous carbon.
Herein, three kinds of green activators were separately used to successfully
prepare N-doped porous carbons through a two-step strategy: hydrothermal
carbonization and chemical activation using microcrystalline cellulose
as the carbon source and urea as the nitrogen source. Palladium was
deposited on these N-doped microcrystalline cellulose-based carbons
(NMC-X, where X represents the activator) via a traditional deposition–precipitation
method, and the resulting Pd nanoparticle catalysts (Pd/NMC-X) showed
high activity in the selective hydrogenation of quinoline under mild
conditions, particularly Pd/NMC-ZC (ZC, zinc carbonate), which achieved
complete conversion of quinoline within 100 min at 40 °C and
4 atm H2. Characterization results suggest that the high
activity of Pd/NMC-ZC is mainly attributed to the special electronic
structure of its Pd species, particularly the distribution of valence
states and reducibility of Pd and the high hydrogen spillover capacity
between Pd and NMC-ZC. The chemical activation by ZC leads to the
formation of multiple defect sites on the carbon skeleton, modifying
the carbon surface properties to enhance hydrogen spillover. This
also provides an excellent environment for Pd nanoparticle anchoring,
thus increasing the Pd-support interactions and regulating the electronic
structure of Pd.