Upgrading heterogeneous Ni catalysts with thiol modification

Pengpeng Ruan; Bili Chen; Qin Zhou; Hansong Zhang; Yahao Wang; Kunlong Liu; Wenting Zhou; Ruixuan Qin; Zhi Liu; Gang Fu; Nanfeng Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.xinn.2022.100362

Upgrading heterogeneous Ni catalysts with thiol modification

Innovation (Camb). 2022 Dec 14;4(1):100362. doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2022.100362. eCollection 2023 Jan 30.

Authors

Pengpeng Ruan¹, Bili Chen¹, Qin Zhou², Hansong Zhang¹, Yahao Wang¹, Kunlong Liu¹, Wenting Zhou¹, Ruixuan Qin¹, Zhi Liu², Gang Fu^{1

3}, Nanfeng Zheng^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, and Department of Chemistry, National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Preparation Technology of Nanomaterials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
² School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
³ Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM), Xiamen 361102, China.

Abstract

Precious metal catalysts are the cornerstone of many industrial processes. Replacing precious metal catalysts with earth-abundant metals is one of key challenges for the green and sustainable development of chemical industry. We report in this work a surprisingly effective strategy toward the development of cost-effective, air-stable, and efficient Ni catalysts by simple surface modification with thiols. The as-prepared catalysts exhibit unprecedentedly high activity and selectivity in the reductive amination of aldehydes/ketones. The thiol modification can not only prevent the deep oxidation of Ni surface to endow the catalyst with long shelf life in air but can also allow the reductive amination to proceed via a non-contact mechanism to selectively produce primary amines. The catalytic performance is far superior to that of precious and non-precious metal catalysts reported in the literature. The wide application scope and high catalytic performance of the developed Ni catalysts make them highly promising for the low-cost, green production of high-value amines in chemical industry.

Keywords: earth-abundant metal; metal heterogeneous catalyst; reductive amination of aldehydes/ketones; surface modification; thiol.