Spinel ZnMn2O4 hollow nanospheres as an efficient catalyst for imine synthesis at near room temperature

Abstract

A thermally driven contraction process can be used to synthesize ZnMn₂O₄ spinel hollow nanospheres. Material characterizations and theoretical calculations revealed that incorporating oxyphilic Zn into Mn₅O₈ induced abundant and highly accessible Mn³⁺ and oxygen vacancy active sites, and then boosted O₂ adsorption-activation. Hence, ZnMn₂O₄ acts as a novel catalyst to enable efficient oxidative coupling of primary alcohols and amines in air at 30 °C, obviously outperforming previously reported transition metal oxide catalysts.