Abstract
We report a one-pot hydrothermal route for the atom-economical biosynthesis of carbon aerogel-supported noble metal nanoparticles. A simple sugar derived from hemicellulose, e.g., xylose, and a natural phenol produced by brown algae, e.g., phloroglucinol, were used as renewable and abundant precursors. We demonstrated the versatility of the one-pot hydrothermal route to prepare Pt/C and Ru/C nanocomposites with tuneable properties of both the carbonaceous support and the supported metal nanoparticles. We obtained ruthenium nanoparticles with an unusual face-centered-cubic structure. The Pt/C aerogel nanocomposites showed competitive properties as catalysts for a model hydrogenation reaction as compared with analogous metal/carbon catalysts.