Patent Application
20160279619
Aromatic and aliphatic primary amines (here denoted R-NH2) constitute an important class of compounds used as intermediates in the synthesis of numerous pharmaceutical, dye, polymer and natural products. See, Downing, R. S., Kunkeler, P. J., van Bekkum, H. Catal. Today 1997, 37, 121-136; Ono, N.; The Nitro Group in Organic Synthesis, Wiley-VCH, New York, 2001; Kim, D.; Guengerich, F. P.; Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 2005, 45, 27-49; and Wang, K.; Guengerich, F. P. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2013, 26, 993-1004. R—NH2 compounds are often synthesized by the reductive amination of aldehydes and alcohols in the presence of a hydrogen source. Alternatively, the amines can be prepared by direct hydrogenation of aromatic or aliphatic nitro (R—NO2) and nitrile (R—CN) compounds in the presence of noble metal catalysts under high hydrogen pressures and high temperatures. For a recent overview on synthetic aspects of the catalytic reduction of nitroarenes, see: Blaser, H. U.; Siegrist, U.; Steiner, H.; and Studer, M. in: Fine Chemicals through Heterogeneous Catalysis Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, p. 389, 2001; see also Blaser, H-U.; Steiner, H.; Studer, M. ChemCatChem 2009, 1, 210-221. For reviews on transfer hydrogenation, see: Gladiali S.; Mestroni, G.; in Transition Metals for Organic Synthesis, Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, p. 145, 2004; Gladiali S., Alberico, E. Chem. Soc. Rev, 2006, 35, 226-236; and Samec, J. S. M.; Backvall, J.-E.; Andersson, P. G.; Brandt, P. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2006, 35, 237-248.
To create more environmentally benign conditions, alcohols have been used as alternative hydrogen sources, such as ethanol: Chandrappa, S.; Vinaya, K.; Ramakrishnappa, T.; Rangappa, K. S. Synlett 2010, 20, 3019-3022; isopropanol: Mohapatra, S. K.; Sonavane, S. U.; Jayaram, R. V.; Selvam, P. Tetrahedron Lett. 2002, 43, 8527-8529; and glycerol: Wolfson, A.; Dlugy, C.; Shotland, Y.; Tavor, D. Tetrahedron Lett. 2009, 50, 5951-5953; see also Gawande, M. B.; Rathi, A. K.; Branco, P. S.; Nogueira, I. D.; Velhinho, A.; Shrikhande, J. J.; Indulkar, U. U.; Jayaram, R. V.; Ghumman, C. A. A.; Bundaleski, N.; Teodoro, O.M.N.D. Chem. Eur J., 2012, 18, 12628-12632. However, the reported alcohol-initiated hydrogenation reactions are slow and have low reaction selectivity.
Recently, ammonia borane (AB, NH3.BH3) has become a popular choice as a hydrogen source for the reduction process due to its high volume/mass hydrogen density, its nontoxicity and its high-solubility in water. Peng, B.; Chen, J. Energy Environ. Sci. 2008, 1, 479-483; Demirci, U. B.; Miele, P. Energy Environ. Sci. 2009, 2, 627-637; Smythe, N. C.; Gordon, J. C. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2010, 509-521; and Umegaki, T.; Yan, J-M.; Zhang, X-B.; Shioyama, H.; Kuriyama, N.; Xu, Q. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2009, 34, 2303-2311. AB has been used to reduce C═C, C═N and C═O bonds in aqueous solutions under ambient conditions. Yang, X.; Fox, T.; Berke, H. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 2053-2055; Yang, X.; Zhao, L.; Fox, T.; Wang, Z.-X.; Berke, H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 2058-2062; and Yang, X.; Fox, T.; Berke, H. Tetrahedron, 2011, 67, 7121-7127.
Palladium-based catalysts have previously been shown to facilitate the dehydrogenation of AB—see Kiliç, B.; Sencanh, S.; Metin, Ö. J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem. 2012, 361-362, 104-110; also Akbayrak, S.; Kaya, M.; Volkan, M.; Ozkar, S. AppL Catal. B 2014, 147, 387-393; Erdogan, H.; Metin, O.; Ozkar, S. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2009, 11, 10519-10525; and Metin, Ö; Sahin, S.; Özkar, S. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 2009, 34, 6304-6313. Palladium-based catalysts have also been used to selectively hydrogenate a variety of substrates. See Niu, Y. H.; Yeung, L. K.; Crooks, R. M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 6840-6846; Maegawa, T.; Takahashi, T.; Yoshimura, M.; Suzuka, H.; Monguchi, Y.; Sajiki, H. Adv. Synth. Catal. 2009, 351, 2091-2095; Ueno, T.; Suzuki, M.; Goto, T.; Matsumoto, T.; Nagayama, K.; Watanabe, Y. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 2527-2530.
Applicant reasoned that a catalytic tandem reaction in which Pd serves a dual role to catalyze the dehydrogenation of AB and to hydrogenate R—NO2 or R—CN could potentially be an efficient way to generate primary amines, R—NH2. Considering the enhanced catalytic performance and selectivity that has been observed for bimetallic NPs demonstrated in hydrogenation reactions (see Sankar, M.; Dimitratos, N.; Miedziak, P. J.; Wells, P. P.; Kielye, C. J.; Hutchings, G. J. Chem. Soc. Rev., 2012, 41, 8099-8139; Liu, X.; Wang, D.; Li, Y. Nano Today 2012, 7, 448-466; and Singh, A. K., Xu, Q. ChemCatChem, 2013, 5, 652-676; and also demonstrated for dehydrogenation of AB—see: Singh, A. K.; Xu, Q. ChemCatChem 2013, 5, 3000-3004; Jiang, H. L.; Umegaki, T.; Akita, T.; Zhang, X. B.; Haruta, M.; Xu, Q. Chem. Eur. J. 2010, 46, 3132-3137; Rachiero, G. P; Demirci, U. B.; Miele, P. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2011, 36, 7051-7065; and Sun, D.; Mazumder, V.; Metin, O.; Sun, S. ACS Catal. 2012, 2, 1290-1295; and considering also the role a nickel catalyst plays to selectively hydrogenate nitro or nitrile groups to R—NH2, see Shimizu, K.; Kon, K.; Onodera, W.; Yamazaki, H.; Kondo, J. N. ACS Catal. 2013, 3, 112-117; and Gowda, S.; Gowda, D. C. Tetrahedron, 2002, 58, 2211-2213, it was further decided to explore bimetallic MPd NPs, especially NiPd NPs, as potentially efficient tandem reaction catalysts.
Bimetallic nanoparticles are synthesized for catalyzing the tandem reaction of dehydrogenating ammonia borane (AB) and hydrogenating nitrogen compounds to primary amines. Polycrystalline nanoparticles are formed and assembled or distributed on a support to form a supported catalyst for the tandem reactions, and the feed stocks or precursors are fed in solution with the supported catalyst. The catalyst may be recovered and be repeatedly reused in a clean environmentally-friendly process for synthesis of amines. In proof-of-principle examples, the nickel-palladium nanoparticles were formed in solution by co-reduction of nickel and palladium salts, and assembled on a graphene support G; when tested on a range of alkyl- and aryl nitro compounds, the NPs were found to provide highly efficient catalysis for hydrogenating the nitrogen-containing groups. Certain aspects of the invention herein have been reported in a published article entitled Tandem Dehydrogenation of Ammonia Borane and Hydrogenation of Nitro/Nitrile Compounds Catalyzed by Graphene-Supported NiPd Alloy Nanoparticles, ACS Catal., 2014, 4 (6), pp 1777-1782. The Supporting Information for that article, which is freely available from the publisher ACS Catalysis, contains further information, drawings, Tables and analytic measurements and data related to variations in particle manufacture, and reports measured catalyst activity and operation on a range of nitro- or nitrile compounds. Both that Article and its Supporting Information are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. In addition, certain portions of the discussion and text below reference specific drawings, graphs, tables or data of the Supporting Information when discussing NiPd nanoparticles, embodiments of the invention, methods of use, and the scope of synthesis processes using such nanoparticles on various supports. References to data in the Supporting Information will in general include a prefix S- as part of the relevant drawing or Table number.
These and other features of the invention will be understood from the description and illustrative drawings below, wherein
The invention herein includes a synthesis of NiPd NPs and their assembly on a support, preferably graphene (G), as supported nanoparticles effective for catalyzing the tandem reactions of AB dehydrogenation and R—NO2 and/or R—CN hydrogenation to R—NH2 in an environmentally-friendly process, e.g., in aqueous methanol solution at room temperature. By way of background, recently applicant and others reported the synthesis of metal-Pd nanoparticles (MPd NPs, M: Co, or Cu) by reduction of PdBr2 and M(acac)2 (acac=acetylacetonate) at 260° C. in oleylamine (OAm) and trioctylphosphine (TOP). See Mazumder, V.; Chi, M.; Mankin, M.; Liu, Y.; Metin, Ö.; Sun, D.; More, K. L.; Sun, S. Nano Lett. 2012, 12, 1102-1106. The TOP-coated CoPd NPs were active catalyst for the hydrolysis of AB. Sun, D.; Mazumder, V.; Metin, Ö. Sun, S. ACS Nano 2011, 5, 6458-6464. However, the NPs were inactive for hydrogenation reaction, and the activation process to remove TOP led to degradation of NP quality. The invention herein involves a new route to synthesis of MPd NPs that does not involve trioctylphosphine, and that provides improved MPd catalysis activity.
In this synthesis, NiPd NPs are now prepared by co-reduction of Ni and Pd-salt precursors by borane-tert-butylamine (BBA) in OAm. The NiPd NPs so produced are active not only for AB dehydrogenation, but also for the hydrogenation of R—NO2 and/or R—CN to RNH2. Further, when the NiPd NPs were deposited on G, they became a highly efficient catalyst for tandem AB dehydrogenation and hydrogenation reactions in aqueous solution at room temperature. When tested for tandem reaction on a variety of R—NO2 and/or R—CN feed compounds, it was found that NO2 and CN bonds were reduced selectively to produce R—NH2 in very short (5-30 minute) reaction times, and with high conversion yields reaching up to 100%.
The NP synthesis was carried out using standard airless procedures and commercially available reagents. All reagents were used as received. Oleylamine (OAm) (>70%), borane-tert-butylamine (BBA, 97%), palladium acetylacetonate (Pd(acac)2, 99%), activated carbon (DARCO®-100 mesh particle size), aluminum oxide nanopowder (<50 nm (BET)) and all nitro and/or nitrile compounds used in the tandem reaction were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and used as received. Nickel (II) acetate tetrahydrate (98%) was obtained from Strem chemicals.
Samples for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis were prepared by depositing a single drop of the diluted NP dispersion in hexane amorphous carbon coated copper grids. Images were obtained on a Philips CM20 at 200 kV. High resolution TEM (HRTEM) images were obtained on a JEOL 2100F with an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were collected on a Bruker AXS D8-Advanced diffractometer with Cu Kα radiation (λ=1.5418 Å). Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) elemental analysis measurements were carried out on a JY2000 Ultrace ICP Atomic Emission Spectrometer equipped with a JY AS 421 autosampler and 2400 g/mm holographic grating. For ICP analysis, an aliquot of the NPs in hexane was dried and subsequently dissolved in warm (˜75° C.) aqua regia for 30 min to ensure complete dissolution of metal into the acid. The solution was then diluted with 2% HNO3 solution for analysis. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra were recorded on a Bruker Avance DPX 400 MHz spectrometer.
In a typical synthesis of Ni30Pd70 NPs, 0.2 mmol of palladium (II) acetylacetonate (Pd(acac)2) and 0.2 mmol of nickel (II) acetate tetrahydrate (Ni(ac)2.4H2O) were dissolved in 3 mL of OAm. The precursor mixture was quickly injected into a mixture of 200 mg of BBA, 3 mL of OAm and 7 mL of 1-octadecene (ODE) at 100° C. under magnetic stirring in an argon environment. The reaction was allowed to proceed for 1 h and cooled to room temperature. Then acetone/ethanol (v/v=7/3) was added and the NP product was separated by centrifugation at 9000 rpm for 10 min. The NPs were redispersed in hexane and then stored for further use.
In a typical procedure, 10 mg of the NiPd NPs were dissolved in 5.0 mL hexane and mixed with 30.0 mg of G in ethanol (60 mL) The ethanol/hexane mixture was sonicated for 2 h to ensure complete adsorption of NPs onto G. Then, the resultant mixture was centrifuged at 8000 rpm for 10 min and the separated catalyst was washed with ethanol twice and dried under vacuum, giving G-NiPd. The NiPd NPs were also supported on activated carbon (C—NiPd) and aluminum oxide powder (Al2O3—NiPd) by using same method and catalyst loading described above.
The R—NO2 or R—CN (1 mmol), G-NiPd catalyst (4 mg), and water:methanol (3:7) were stirred 5 min in a 100 mL thermolysis tube at room temperature. Next, AB (3 mmol) was added to the reaction mixture and the vessel was closed. Reaction was then continued under vigorous stirring at room temperature. The progress of the catalytic reaction was monitored by thin layered chromatography (TLC). Most reactions completed over the time period of 5-30 min. After completion of the reaction, the catalysts were removed by centrifugation at 7000 rpm and washed three times with water or methanol. Then, the catalysts were allowed to dry for further uses. The solvent was removed by using a rotary evaporator. Finally, the crude residue was directly purified by column chromatography on silica gel using acetone. The yields of the reduced compounds were determined by 1H and 13C NMR with D2O, DMSO, CD3OD or CDCl3 as the solvent depending on the product separated.
NiPd alloy NPs were synthesized via the co-reduction of nickel(II) acetate, Ni(ac)2, and palladium(II) acetlyacetonate, Pd(acac)2, by BBA in OAm and 1-octadecene (ODE). In the synthesis, OAm acted as a surfactant, BBA served as a reducing agent and ODE was used as a solvent. The metal contents of the NiPd alloy NPs were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and characteristics of different particles measured. In the current reaction condition, Ni30Pd70 NPs were obtained by reducing 0.2 mmol of Ni(ac)2.H2O and 0.2 mmol of Pd(acac)2. Ni20Pd80 NPs were synthesized by changing the Ni:Pd molar ratio to 0.1:0.25.
The NiPd NP size and composition can be controlled by the temperature at which the metal precursors are injected into the reaction. For example, the injection of 0.30 mmol of Ni(ac)2 and 0.25 mmol of Pd(acac)2 into the BBA solution at 75° C. yielded 3.3+0.3 nm Ni35Pd75 NPs (shown in Figure S-3A of the published Supporting Information, see Appendix A filed herewith) whereas the injection at 125° C. gave 3.9±0.4 nm Ni50Pd50 NPs (shown in Figure S-3B of the Supporting Information). It is noteworthy to mention that alloying Ni with Pd is thermodynamically difficult and the synthesis of alloy NPs with the higher Ni:Pd ratio could not be achieved at temperatures higher than 125° C. The relatively large lattice mismatch between Ni and Pd (9.4-10%)—see: Chang, C. J. Magn. Magn. Mater 1991, 96, L1-L7; and Porte, L.; Phaner-Goutorbe, M.; Guigner, J. M.; Bertolini, J. C. Surf Sci. 1999, 424, 262-270—might make it difficult for the two metals to intermix well together, presenting a different situation from the formation of CoPd and CuPd, which have smaller lattice mismatches: Co/Pd (4.5%)—see Singh, A. K., Xu, Q. ChemCatChem, 2013, 5, 652-676—and Cu/Pd (7.1%)—see Jin, M.; Zhang, H.; Zhong, X.; Lu, N.; Li, Z.; Xia, Z.; Kim, M. J.; Xia, Y. ACS Nano, 2012, 6, 2566-2573. Previous studies also indicate Ni and Pd have difficulty forming a solid solution and NiPd alloy NPs are often produced by the Ni/Pd interdiffusion of the preformed Pd/Ni core/shell NPs at temperatures greater than 265° C. see, Zhang, M.; Yan, Z.; Sun, Q.; Xie, J.; Jing, J. New J. Chem. 2012, 36, 2533-2540; Son, S. U.; Jong, Y.; Park, J.; Na, H. B.; Park, H. M.; Yun, H. J.; Lee, J.; Hyeon, T. J. Am. Chem, Soc. 2004, 126, 5026-5027; Metin, Ö.; Ho, S. F.; Alp, C.; Can, H.; Mankin, M. N.; Gültekin, M. S.; Chi, M.; Sun, S. Nano Res. 2013, 6, 10-18; see also Lee, K.; Kang, S. W.; Lee, S.; Park, K-H.; Lee Y. W.; Han, S. W. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2012, 4, 4208-4214.
To perform catalytic tests, we deposited the NiPd NPs on graphene (G) through the sonication of an ethanol dispersion of G and a hexane dispersion of NiPd NPs, using a method similar to that reported for assembly of FePt NPs on G in Guo, S.; Sun, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 2492-2495. This resulted in the graphene-supported G-NiPd NPs.
We first used nitrobenzene (or its simple derivative) as a model compound to demonstrate G-NiPd NP catalysis for the tandem dehydrogenation of AB and hydrogenation of R—NO2 and to determine optimum NP composition and reaction conditions. We tested the catalytic tandem reactions at room temperature in different solvents including water, methanol, ethanol and their mixtures at various ratios, and determined that the mixed solvent of methanol/water (v/v=7/3) was the best solvent combination to convert nitrobenzene (1) to aniline (2)—see line 1 of TABLE 1 in
Among three different G-NiPd nanoparticle batches tested for the tandem reduction, the G-Ni30Pd70 showed the highest efficiency with high amine conversion yields in short reaction times. Therefore, the G-Ni30Pd70 catalyst was selected to catalyze tandem AB dehydrogenation and hydrogenation reactions for different nitro- and nitrile compounds; the different target molecules and reaction results are shown in
We further studied precursor effects, e.g., the influence of different AB/nitrobenzene ratios, on the catalytic tandem reactions (Table S1 of the Supporting Information shows data for different feed proportions on Ni30Pd70 catalyzed reactions). The conversion yields increased with increasing the AB/nitrobenzene ratios, reaching the maximum 100% when the ratio was at 3. We also studied the influence of the support on Ni30Pd70 catalysis. These NPs supported on either conventional carbon support (C—Ni30Pd70) (Figure S1, Supporting Information) or aluminum oxide nanopowder (Al2O3—Ni30Pd70) (Figure S2) were active catalysts for the tandem reaction to reduce p-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, but the conversion yields were lower than for NPs on graphene support (54% and 55%, respectively). G has an atomically flat surface and high adsorption power for organic molecules; when G was used as a support, both the NiPd NPs and reactants would be more strongly adsorbed on G than on C or Al2O3, and the G—Ni30Pd70 NPs were found to exhibit much increased catalytic efficiency due to the high local reactant concentration.
Finally, it was found that the NP catalyst was a necessary component for the tandem reaction, as no product was obtained over 24 h when the reaction was performed in the absence of the catalyst. From these tests, we can conclude that 3 equivalent of AB in methanol/water mixture (v/v=7/3) at room temperature is the optimum reaction condition for the G-Ni30Pd70 NPs to catalyze the tandem reaction.
Using the G-Ni30Pd70 catalyst, for example, nitrobenzene (1) was reduced to aniline (2) quantitatively in 5 min (Table-1, entry 1). The NO2 groups in p-methyl, o-methoxy and p-hydroxyl-nitrobenzenes (3, 5, 7, 9) were also reduced into the related amine products (4, 6, 8, 10) in nearly quantitative conversion yields in 5 min (Table-1, entries 2-5). The catalytic reaction could be easily extended to 2-nitro-naphthyl (11), 3-nitro-9H-fluorene (13) and 2-chloro-5-nitropyridine (15) compounds, which were all converted to respective amine derivatives (12, 14, 16) with the conversion yields higher than 95% in 5 min (Table-1, entries 6-8). These amine derivatives with hetero-aromatic structures are especially important medicinal agents due to their potent antimicrobial and insecticidal properties. See—Patrick, G. L.; Kinsman, O. S. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 1996, 31, 615-624; (b) Nagashree, S.; Mallesha, L.; Mallu, P. Pharma Chem., 2013, 5, 50-55.
For 1,3-dinitrobenzene (17), both NO2 groups were reduced quantitatively to NH2 (18) in 5 min (Table 1, entry 9). Reduction of meta-amino-nitrobenzene (19) was a little slower process, reaching 100% conversion after 30 min of reaction (Table 1, entry 10). Other amino-nitrobenzenes (20, 22) were reduced similarly to 1,3-dinitrobenzene, producing the corresponding diamine products (Table 1, entries 11, 12). The selective reduction —NO2 was better demonstrated in aromatic compounds bearing other reducible substituents such as 1-bromo-4-nitrobenzene (24) and methyl 2-hydroxy-4-nitrobenzoate (26). They were all reduced to the related amine products (>99% conversion in 5 min) (Table 1, entries 13,14) and the Br— or ester group showed no obvious effect on the NO2 reduction kinetics. The tandem reaction could be further extended to the simple aliphatic nitro compounds such as methyl nitro (28) and ethyl nitro (30) compounds that were all converted quantitatively to the related primary amines (29, 31) in 5 min (Table 1, entries 15, 16). The tabulated synthetic results demonstrate that the G-NiPd NP catalyzed tandem reaction is highly efficient and selective for —NO2 reduction into —NH2 and that other functional groups around NO2 have little effect on the reduction outcome. This is also consistent with the literature observations that —NO2 is easily reduced. See—Ciardelli, F.; Pertici, P.; Vitulli, G.; Giaiacopi, S.; Ruggeri, G.; Pucci, A. Macromol. Symp. 2006, 231, 125-133; also Pehlivan, L.; Metay, E.; Laval, S.; Dayoub, W.; Demonchaux, P.; Mignani, G.; Lemaire, M. Tetrahedron 2011, 67, 1971-1976; and Takasaki, M.; Motoyama, Y.; Higashi, K.; Yoon, S-H.; Mochida, I.; Nagashima, H. Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 1601-1604.
The G-NiPd NPs were found to be equally active in catalyzing the tandem reaction to reduce aromatic and aliphatic nitrile compounds to the corresponding amines in conversion yields up to 100% within 10 min (entries 1-3 of Table 2, shown in
The G-NiPd NPs and their catalysis on the tandem reaction can be compared favorably with other methods reported for the reduction of R—NO2, as shown in Table S2 of the Supporting Information. In general, the G-NiPd-catalyzed reactions proceed much faster at room temperature. Other methods require longer time and/or higher reaction temperatures. For example, Au NPs supported on magnesium oxide (MgO—Au) have been reported to catalyze NaB H4 reduction of nitrobenzene, producing aniline in 85% yield after 1 h reaction at room temperature—see, Layek, K.; Kantam, M. L.; Shirai, M.; Hamane, D. N.; Sasaki, T.; Maheswaran, H. Green Chem. 2012, 14, 3164-3174; and in the presence of Au/TiO2, AB reduced nitrobenzene to aniline in 92% yield after 30 min at 25° C. (See—Vasilikogiannaki, E.; Gryparis, C.; Kotzabasaki, V.; Lykakis, I. N.; Stratakis, M. Adv. Synth. Catal. 2013, 355, 907-911. As a comparison, the G-NiPd NP catalyzed reaction converted nitrobenzene to aniline in >99% yield after only 5 min reaction at room temperature.
An extra benefit of using the new G-NiPd catalyst for tandem AB dehydrogenation and R—NO2/R—CN hydrogenation is that it is stable and reusable. Its durability was tested by performing the tandem reaction on p-nitrophenol. The catalyst was separated after each reaction and washed with water/methanol for the next round of reaction. After the 5th consecutive use, the catalyst still exhibited a conversion yield higher than 95% in the same reaction times. We believe that the high activity and stability of the G-NiPd catalyst stems from its stable dispersion in water/methanol and from the presence of a graphitic plane near the G-NiPd, which enriches all reactants around each NiPd NP, facilitating the tandem reaction. The G-NiPd thus constitutes a clean, long-lived and re-usable catalyst for ‘green chemistry’ processes.
The foregoing description and reported data and reaction characteristics thus document an improved method and materials for catalytic production of primary amines. We have reported a facile route to monodisperse 3.4 nm NiPd alloy NPs. These NiPd NPs are deposited on graphene (G) support using solution-phase self-assembly, and the supported G-NiPd catalyst was demonstrated to be efficient in catalyzing the tandem reaction of dehydrogenation of AB and hydrogenation of R—NO2 or R—CN to produce primary amines R—NH2. Fast, high yield catalytic reactions were run in the aqueous methanol solutions at room temperature. In the series of aromatic or aliphatic nitro and/or nitrile compounds tested, all were reduced to the respective primary amines with excellent conversion yields in short reaction times of 5 to 30 minutes. Compared to the known hydrogenation methods, approach reported herein has the following distinct advantages: 1) the catalyst is efficient, reusable and cost-effective; 2) the tandem reaction can be performed in an environment-friendly and safe process (no stored/pressurized hydrogen is needed); 3) the reaction is easy to operate at ambient conditions with short reaction times and high yields; 4) the reduction is especially selective for R-NO2; 5) the reduction is also active for R—CN when there is no π-conjugated —NO2 and —NH2 co-present with —CN. The invention thus opens up a new path to selective reduction of R—NO2 and/or R—CN to R—NH2.
The invention being thus disclosed and aspects of its tuning and operation explored, further variations and modification thereof, as well as adaptations to desired chemical syntheses, will occur to those skilled in the art, and are considered to be within the scope of the invention as set forth above and in the following claims.
This invention was made with government support under W911NF-11-1-0353 awarded by the U.S. Army Research Office. The government has certain rights in the invention.
