A ruthenium-grafted hydrotalcite as a multifunctional catalyst for direct alpha-alkylation of nitriles with primary alcohols

Ken Motokura; Daisuke Nishimura; Kohsuke Mori; Tomoo Mizugaki; Kohki Ebitani; Kiyotomi Kaneda

doi:10.1021/ja049181l

A ruthenium-grafted hydrotalcite as a multifunctional catalyst for direct alpha-alkylation of nitriles with primary alcohols

J Am Chem Soc. 2004 May 12;126(18):5662-3. doi: 10.1021/ja049181l.

Authors

Ken Motokura¹, Daisuke Nishimura, Kohsuke Mori, Tomoo Mizugaki, Kohki Ebitani, Kiyotomi Kaneda

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.

PMID: 15125647
DOI: 10.1021/ja049181l

Abstract

Treatment of a hydrotacite, Mg6Al2(OH)16CO3, with an aqueous solution of RuCl3.nH2O afforded a monomeric Ru(IV) species on the surface of the hydrotalcite. This novel Ru-grafted hydrotalcite (Ru/HT) efficiently catalyzed alpha-alkylation of nitriles with primary alcohols through the cooperative catalysis between the Ru species and the surface base sites. The catalyst system could be further extended for the one-pot synthesis of alpha,alpha-dialkylated phenylacetonitriles via the base-catalyzed Michael reaction of alpha-alkylated phenylacetonitrile with activate olefins.