Nitrile hydrogenation using nickel nanocatalysts in ionic liquids†
Abstract
Ni nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in imidazolium based ionic liquids (ILs) have been proven to be versatile catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of benzonitrile to benzylamine with good recyclability in a biphasic system. Influence of the used ILs and reaction conditions has been examined in detail and a wider substrate scope has been studied using benzonitrile derivatives and aliphatic nitriles.