A new catalyst composed of Rh nanoparticles supported on magnesium oxide was prepared by mild hydrogenation of a pre-adsorbed organometallic precursor, and characterized by TEM, XRD, XPS, and hydrogen chemisorption measurements. The catalyst contains 5 wt% Rh as similar to 50 nm metallic nanoparticles uniformly distributed on the surface of MgO, in turn made up of smaller (similar to 2 nm) particles. This material is an efficient catalyst for the hydrogenation of arenes, N-heteroaromatic compounds, and alkenes under moderate reaction conditions. Analogous catalysts containing Rh nanoparticles on other rare earth oxide supports display similar catalytic properties and the hydrogenation activity correlates with the basicity of the support in the case of N-heterocycles, following the trend Rh/MgO < Rh/CaO < Rh/SrO. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.