title: High performance of a cobalt-nitrogen complex for the reduction and reductive coupling of nitro compounds into amines and their derivatives.
abstract: Replacement of precious noble metal catalysts with low-cost, non-noble heterogeneous catalysts for chemoselective reduction and reductive coupling of nitro compounds holds tremendous promise for the clean synthesis of nitrogen-containing chemicals. We report a robust cobalt-nitrogen/carbon (Co-Nx/C-800-AT) catalyst for the reduction and reductive coupling of nitro compounds into amines and their derivates. The Co-Nx/C-800-AT catalyst was prepared by the pyrolysis of cobalt phthalocyanine-silica colloid composites and the subsequent removal of silica template and cobalt nanoparticles. The Co-Nx/C-800-AT catalyst showed extremely high activity, chemoselectivity, and stability toward the reduction of nitro compounds with H2, affording full conversion and >97% selectivity in water after 1.5 hours at 110°C and under a H2pressure of 3.5 bar for all cases. The hydrogenation of nitrobenzene over the Co-Nx/C-800-AT catalyst can even be smoothly performed under very mild conditions (40°C and a H2pressure of 1 bar) with an aniline yield of 98.7%. Moreover, the Co-Nx/C-800-AT catalyst has high activity toward the transfer hydrogenation of nitrobenzene into aniline and the reductive coupling of nitrobenzene into other derivates with high yields. These processes were carried out in an environmentally friendly manner without base and ligands.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Sciences of the Ministry of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3317-3747
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Sciences of the Ministry of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Sciences of the Ministry of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Sciences of the Ministry of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Kejian
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3317-3747
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Sciences of the Ministry of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Kangle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Sciences of the Ministry of Education, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zehui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Hydrogenation; Nitro compounds; Non-noble heterogeneous catalyst; Reductive coupling reaction; Transfer hydrogenation