Organic Transformations Enabled by Yolk–Shell and Core–Shell Structured Catalysts

Nanomaterial-based catalysts have become powerful promoters for catalyzing chemical reactions. However, nanomaterials tend to agglomerate during the reaction process, and thus deteriorating their catalytic performance. In the past few years, core–shellCore-shell and yolk–shell nanostructuresYolk-shell nanostructures have been demonstrated as a promising solution to minimize the problem. This chapter focuses on the recent development of yolk–shellYolk-shell or core–shellCore-shell nanomaterial-catalyzed organic transformationsOrganic transformations. These reactions are reduction including hydrogenation of aldehyde group, nitroaromatics and C=C bond, oxidation of alcohols to carbonyls and styrene to benzaldehyde, Suzuki cross-couplingCross coupling and cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) and Knoevenagel condensation-nitro reduction, and oxidation-Knoevenagel condensation cascade reactionsCascade reaction. As demonstrated in these processes, these nanocatalysts offer the unrivaled capacity of reducing agglomeration while enhancing the catalyst performance in terms of size and chemoselectivity and catalyst stability and robustness for recycling and reuse. Therefore, the nanocatalytic machinery holds great potential for developing new and practically useful reactions, which may be difficult or impossible to achieve by homogenous and other heterogeneous catalytic systems.