Ni ₂ P Nanoalloy as an Air‐Stable and Versatile Hydrogenation Catalyst in Water: P‐Alloying Strategy for Designing Smart Catalysts

Non-noble metal-based hydrogenation catalysts have limited practical applications because they exhibit low activity, require harsh reaction conditions, and are unstable in air. To overcome these limitations, herein we propose the alloying of non-noble metal nanoparticles with phosphorus as a promising strategy for developing smart that both excellent activity air stability. We synthesized novel nickel phosphide nanoalloy (nano-Ni2P) coordinatively unsaturated Ni active sites. Unlike conventional air-unstable catalysts, nano-Ni2P retained its metallic nature air, exhibited high various substrates polar functional groups, such aldehydes, ketones, nitriles, nitroarenes to desired products yields water. Furthermore, used catalyst was easy handle could be reused without pretreatment, providing simple clean system general reactions.