Selective aerobic oxidation of methanol in the coexistence of amines by nanoporous gold catalysts: highly efficient synthesis of formamides.
Holey gold: Highly selective aerobic oxidation of methanol over alkylamines was achieved with a reusable nanoporous gold (AuNPore) catalyst that was fabricated from a Au-Ag alloy. This excellent chemoselectivity enabled direct N-formylation of alkylamines from a mixture of methanol and amines. The remarkable catalytic activity was attributed to the synergistic effect between gold and the residual silver remaining in the AuNPore.
WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan), Fax: (+81) 22-217-6165. tanaka@orgsynth.che.tohoku.ac.jp.
Shinya
S
Tanaka
Taketoshi
T
Minato
Eisuke
E
Ito
Masahiko
M
Hara
Yousoo
Y
Kim
Yoshinori
Y
Yamamoto
Naoki
N
Asao
chemoselectivity; gold; heterogeneous catalysis; nanoporous material; oxidation