@article{Geng2025, 
author = {Yi Geng and Yun Dai and Jie Zhang and Hui Sun and Lei Shi and Qichang Wang and Deliang Xu and Shu Zhang and Jinqiang Zhang and Shaobin Wang and Hongqi Sun},
title = {Hollow carbon sphere nanoreactor decorated with uniformly dispersed Cu nanoparticles: Tunable interfacial electronic structures for enhanced nitroarene reduction},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {11},
pages = {94908081},
keywords = {non-precious metal, hollow structure, environmental remediation, hydrogenation reduction, void-confinement effect},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94908081},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94908081},
abstract = {An efficient catalytic hydrogenation of nitroarenes into their derived anilines is of critical importance for fine chemical industry and environmental remediation. Herein, a Cu decorated hollow carbon nanosphere (Cu/h-CS) was demonstrated as a promising nanoreactor to achieve enhanced hydrogenation toward nitroarene reduction. The unique hollow configuration of h-CS provided sufficient binding sites for Cu anchoring on interior and exterior surfaces, effectively preventing Cu agglomeration. The resulting homogenously dispersed Cu nanoparticles on h-CS exhibited a strong electronic interaction at the interface, leading to the generation of favorable electrophilic Cuδ+ sites. Meanwhile, thin shells with nanoporous channels enabled rapid electron migration, and regulated the mass transfer to boost reactant enrichment due to the void-confinement effect. Compared with its counterpart of Cu loaded solid carbon nanosphere (Cu/s-CS), the desirable structural and electronic configurations of Cu/h-CS offered a preferable micro-environment to achieve markedly enhanced catalytic activity in hydrogenation reactions. As an exemplary verification, the Cu/h-CS demonstrated a high turnover frequency of 740.74 h−1 for 4-nitrophenol reduction (~ 3-fold that of Cu/s-CS), an impressive reduction applicability toward a series of nitroarenes and azo-dyes, as well as an acceptable stability after 10 catalytic cycles. This work sheds new light on the design and construction of low-cost and high-performance catalysts for wide hydrogenation applications.}
}