Issue 11, 2018

Melamine-derived graphitic carbon nitride as a new effective metal-free catalyst for Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with ethylcyanoacetate

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride was prepared by bulk and hard template pyrolysis of melamine. The prepared g-C3N4 as well as N-doped carbon used for comparison exhibited a reasonable catalytic activity in the Knoevenagel condensation between benzaldehyde and ethylcyanoacetate yielding ethyl-α-cyanocinnamate (conversion of benzaldehyde up to 100%, yield of the desired product up to 51%). Under the studied reaction conditions, weak basic sites assigned as C–N[double bond, length as m-dash]C species are responsible for selective formation of the desired product. An increase of tertiary nitrogen content leads to an increase of benzaldehyde conversion with a simultaneous decrease of selectivity towards ethyl-α-cyanocinnamate due to a higher basicity. Carbon nitride obtained using silica as a hard template allows achieving the highest yield of the desired product (50.9%).

Graphical abstract: Melamine-derived graphitic carbon nitride as a new effective metal-free catalyst for Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with ethylcyanoacetate

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Feb 2018
Accepted
08 May 2018
First published
09 May 2018

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2018,8, 2928-2937

Melamine-derived graphitic carbon nitride as a new effective metal-free catalyst for Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with ethylcyanoacetate

N. D. Shcherban, P. Mäki-Arvela, A. Aho, S. A. Sergiienko, P. S. Yaremov, K. Eränen and D. Yu. Murzin, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2018, 8, 2928 DOI: 10.1039/C8CY00253C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements