Piet van Leeuwen et al. paper on NHC-stabilized ruthenium nanoparticles as new catalysts for the hydrogenation of aromatics has been featured in the cover of 2013 first issue of Catalysis Science & Technology.

The investigation of metal nanoparticles in catalysis is receiving an increasing interest due to the advantages they present, especially in reactions in which molecular systems are less active, such as arene hydrogenation.

In this paper, Prof. van Leeuwen’s team and collaborators in Toulouse demonstrate the influence of the nature of NHC ligands attached to the surface of the nanoparticles on their catalytic activity in the hydrogenation of aromatics.

They show that both the ligands used in the preparation of RuNPs and the solvents used in catalysis play a major role in the activity and selectivity of aromatics hydrogenation reactions.

Find out more about the influence of those variables in the paper.