Abstract
This paper reports palladium nanoparticle formation and stabilization by hypercrosslinked polystyrene and the catalytic properties of the nanocomposites obtained. The nanocomposites were characterized using low-temperature nitrogen physisorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The inorganic nanoparticle size was found to depend on the Na2PdCl4 loading with the smallest nanoparticles formed at 0.1 wt% of Pd. The nanocomposites synthesized showed high activity [up to 27 mol/(mol Pd s)] and selectivity (up to 98.5 % at 100 % conversion) in selective hydrogenation of acetylene alcohols.