FeNi3/NiFe-Mixed Metal Oxide Heterostructured Nanosheets for Catalytic Nitro-Amination

The two-dimensional heterostructured FeNi3/NiFe-mixed metal oxide porous nanocatalyst has been constructed through the coprecipitation-phase-transformation process, in which a large amount of interfaces and micropores caused by the topotactic transformation can expose abundant active sites, thus promoting catalytic activity. Simultaneously, by virtue of the strong interaction between metals and metal oxides derived from the in situ partial reduction, the uniform FeNi3 phases can be stably fixed on NiFe-MMO nanosheets. In such a designed FeNi3/NiFeMMO nanocomposite, the synergistic effect between FeNi3 with excellent charge-transfer characteristics and the NiFe-MMO support with a selective adsorption of the -NO2 group in p-nitroaromatic compounds makes it have excellent catalytic performance of the nitro-amination reaction, especially for the amination of p-nitrophenol. The reaction rate constant k is as high as 0.08123 s(-1), and there is no obvious performance degradation after 15 cycles of the reaction. This work provides a valid pathway for catalyzing the nitro-amination reaction.