Cobalt nanoparticles modified with N-doped hierarchical porous carbon derived from biomass are found to be a highly efficient, reusable heterogeneous catalyst for the coupling of nitroarenes with alcohols, selectively affording imines and amines via the borrowing hydrogen strategy for the first time. The product selectivity between imine and amine may be precisely tuned by simple alteration of the reaction conditions without changing the catalyst in one reaction system. In this study, a broad set of complex imines and amines was successfully synthesized in good to high yields with various functional groups tolerated for both nitroarenes and alcohols, highlighting the potentially practical utility of the protocol. This heterogeneous catalyst can be easily removed from the reaction medium by external magnet and can be reused at least four times without significant loss in activity and selectivity.Catalysts 2019, 9, 116 2 of 11 achievements, direct synthesis of imines by the coupling of nitroarenes and alcohols with high activity and selectivity via the borrowing hydrogen strategy remains challenging. To date, only a handful of examples enabled by noble metal catalysts (e.g., Pd [46,47], Ru [48], Ir [49], and Au [50,51]) have been reported; however, their catalytic activities and selectivities are rather low and accompanied by limited substrate scopes (Scheme 1b). In addition, the high cost and limited reserve on earth of noble metal catalysts significantly impedes their large-scale industrial application. Notably, no successful direct imine formation from nitroarenes and alcohols catalyzed by heterogeneous base metal catalysts has been described, to the best of our knowledge.