Issue 31, 2022

Nanoparticles and single atoms of cobalt synergistically enabled low-temperature reductive amination of carbonyl compounds

Abstract

Low-temperature and selective reductive amination of carbonyl compounds is a highly promising approach to access primary amines. However, it remains a great challenge to conduct this attractive route efficiently over earth-abundant metal-based catalysts. Herein, we designed several Co-based catalysts (denoted as Co@C–N(x), where x represents the pyrolysis temperature) by the pyrolysis of the metal–organic framework ZIF-67 at different temperatures. Very interestingly, the prepared Co@C–N(800) could efficiently catalyze the reductive amination of various aldehydes/ketones to synthesize the corresponding primary amines with high yields at 35 °C. Besides non-noble metal and mild temperature, the other unique advantage of the catalyst was that the substrates with different reduction-sensitive groups could be converted into primary amines selectively because the Co-based catalyst was not active for these groups at low temperature. Systematic analysis revealed that the catalyst was composed of graphene encapsulated Co nanoparticles and atomically dispersed Co–Nx sites. The Co particles promoted the hydrogenation step, while the Co–Nx sites acted as acidic sites to activate the intermediate (Schiff base). The synergistic effect of metallic Co particles and Co–Nx sites is crucial for the excellent performance of the catalyst Co@C–N(800). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on efficient synthesis of primary amines via reductive amination of carbonyl compounds over earth-abundant metal-based catalysts at low temperature (35 °C).

Graphical abstract: Nanoparticles and single atoms of cobalt synergistically enabled low-temperature reductive amination of carbonyl compounds

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
19 3 2022
Accepted
08 7 2022
First published
08 7 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 9047-9055

Nanoparticles and single atoms of cobalt synergistically enabled low-temperature reductive amination of carbonyl compounds

B. Zheng, J. Xu, J. Song, H. Wu, X. Mei, K. Zhang, W. Han, W. Wu, M. He and B. Han, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 9047 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC01596J

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