Selective Hydrogenation by Carbocatalyst: The Role of Radicals.

The selective hydrogenation of the nitro moiety is a difficult task in the presence of other reducible functional groups such as alkenes or alkynes. We show that the carbon-based (metal-free) catalyst can be used to selectively reduce substituted nitro groups using H2 as a reducing agent, providing a great potential to replace noble-metal catalysts and contributing to simple and greener strategies for organic synthesis.