Efficient heating of solid catalysts in water by microwaves is difficult because of the low microwave penetration into water. Here, we demonstrate selective heating of nickel phosphide nanoparticle catalysts in water by using 915 MHz microwaves, which has excellent penetration into water solvents. 915 MHz microwaves effectively accelerated the D-sorbitol synthesis by hydrogenation of D-glucose over the nickel phosphide nanoparticle on hydrotalcite (nano-Ni2P/HT) catalyst at 20 bar hydrogen pressure; typically, D-Glucose conversion reached over 90% within 5 minutes. We demonstrated the formation of local high temperature at nano-Ni2P/HT by microwaves using in situ XAFS and XRD.
