ZnSe nanoparticles anchored on N-doped mesoporous carbon prepared from zinc-based bio-MOF and chitosan as an efficient catalyst for selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes under mild conditions.

Developing cost-effective and high-performance porous carbon-based catalysts using inexpensive and environmentally friendly starting materials, such as bio-MOFs and biopolymers (e.g., chitosan, cellulose, starch, cyclodextrin), is an attractive research field, particularly for green chemistry processes. Herein, a series of ZnSe nanoparticles loaded on nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (ZnSe/NmC) were fabricated via facile one-step calcination of mixtures of Zn-bioMOFs, chitosan, and SeO2 at various temperatures under an N2 flow. Among them, ZnSe/NmC-800 with a larger specific surface area (858.58 m2·g-1) and pore volume (0.513 cm3·g-1) displayed superior catalytic performance and selectivity for reducing different nitroaromatics under ambient conditions (60 mg, 4 mmol NaBH4 as reducing agent, 75 °C, in the presence of water as green solvent), and the corresponding amines were obtained in 70-98 % yields within 30-120 min. The use of safe, green, and inexpensive precursors, along with a simple synthetic method, the ability to conduct reactions in eco-friendly and ambient conditions without employing organic solvents, short reaction times, and reproducibility of ZnSe/NmC-800 for 4 cycles without significant loss of activity, are some merits of this protocol that make it a great potential for broad applications in organic transformations.