SUPPORTING INFORMATION Efficient aqueous hydrogenation of biomass platform molecules using supported metal nanoparticles on Starbons® Rafael Luque*, James H. Clark , Kenta Yoshida and Pratibha L. Gai Experimental Materials preparation The preparation of SMNPs on Starbons was carried out using a facile impregnation/reduction methodology 1 . Starbons® were suspended in a ethanol/(acetone) solution of the metal precursor (Ru and Rh chlorides, palladium acetate and tetramine platinum (II) nitrate) containing the theoretical metal loading (5 wt% metal) and stirred under mild heating (45-55 o C) overnight. The final solid containing MNPs was then vacuum filtered, washed thoroughly with fresh acetone and activated in a vacuum oven at 45-60 o C overnight. Materials characterisation The electron microscopy images were recorded in a JEOL 2200FS double aberration corrected (AC-TEM/STEM and HAADF-STEM), with integral in-column energy filter, operating at 200kV and at the highest atomic scale resolution (0.1 nm or below) with crystallographic and chemical analysis. For AC-TEM/STEM studies, samples were prepared by ultrasonically dispersing as- synthesised catalyst powders in alcohol and placing the solution on holey carbon coated copper microgrids. Low dose electron beam imaging methods were employed throughout. Supplementary Material (ESI) for Chemical Communications This journal is (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009