Fabrication of highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide for solid phase catalytic hydrogenation of 1,4-bis(phenylethynyl) benzene

Abstract In this work, nanopalladium catalysts supported on the surface of reduced graphene oxide (rGO/Pd) with different palladium loadings have been prepared by one-step reduction in aqueous phase. They were mixed with 1,4-bis(phenylethynyl)benzene (DEB) to form rGO/Pd-DEB composites according to a mass ratio of 1:3. It was shown that nanopalladium particles with particle size of about 2–6 nm were disperse uniformly on the surface of rGO when the Pd loadings were in the range of 3.97–10.60 wt%. The maximum hydrogen uptake capacity of rGO/Pd-DEB composites at 25 °C determined according to PCT method was about 182.5 ml/g after reacted with hydrogen for about 20 h, which was some lower than that of the common Pd/C-DEB pallet getter (216 ml/g) but significantly higher than alkynyl modified polyvinyl alcohol supported palladium hydrogen absorbing materials (0.32 ml/g), indicating that rGO/Pd could be used in solid phase catalytic hydrogenation due to the high dispersion of palladium nanoparticles and the physical proximity of rGO/Pd catalyst with DEB organic molecules. This provides a good potential technical way for perparing the moldable carbon aerogel hydrogen absorption materials.