Biphasic catalysis using amphiphilic polyphenols-chelated noble
metals as highly active and selective catalysts
Hui Mao,*1,3 Hong Yu, 3 Jing Chen, 3 & Xuepin Liao*2
1
College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, PR China, 610068. 2
National Engineering Laboratory for Clean Technology of Leather Manufacture, Sichuan University,
Chengdu, PR China, 610065.
3
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological
University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798. Correspondence and requests for materials should be
addressed to H. M. (maohui@ntu.edu.sg) or X. L. (xpliao@scu.edu.cn)
Supplementary Figure S1 | O 1s spectra of BWT and BWT-Pd2+.
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Supplementary Figure S2 | FT-IR spectra of BWT and BWT-PdNPs
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Supplementary Figure S3 | TEM image of BWT-PdNPs, where the BWT
content in the catalyst is 15 mg.
3
Supplementary Figure S4 | UV-vis spectra of BWT and BWT-Rh3+.
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Supplementary Figure S5 | HNMR spectra of pyrogallic acid (a) and pyrogallic acid-Rh3+ (b).
Since the molecular structure of BWT is quite complex, pyrogallic acid was used as a model to simulate
the chelating interactions of adjacent phenolic hydroxyls of BWT toward Rh3+. In Supplementary Figure
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S5(a), the pyrogallic acid shows the peak at 8.7 ppm assigned to the phenolic hydroxyl protons of Ha and
the peak located at 8.0 ppm with integral of 1 proton assigned to the phenolic hydroxyl protons of H b.
Two other peaks with integral of 3 protons, ranged from 6.43 to 6.23 ppm, are attributed to the phenyl
protons of Hc and Hd, respectively. The integral assignment of these protons (Ha, Hb, Hc and Hd) is close
to 2: 1: 2: 1. Supplementary Figure S5(b) shows the HNMR spectrum of pyrogallic acid after reacting
with Rh3+. It can be observed that the peaks related to the phenolic hydroxyls of H a and Hb disappear
while the peaks of Hc and Hd are unchanged. These changes confirm that pyrogallic acid is chelated with
Rh3+ through the adjacent phenolic hydroxyls, and such chelating reaction is also valid in BWT-Rh3+.
Supplementary Figure S6 | TEM and HRTEM images of BWT-RhNPs, where the BWT content in the
catalyst is 15 mg.
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