Supported Ruthenium catalysts with electronic effect and acidity-basicity for efficient reductive amination of biomass-based carbonyl compounds

Abstract

The efficiently reductive amination of carbonyl compounds to the corresponding primary amines under mild condition with NH3 and H2 as nitrogen and hydrogen sources is a challenging task in the chemistry community. Therefore, supported Ru catalysts with excellent catalytic activity for reductive amination of carbonyl compounds were synthesized in this work using a simple impregnation method. Among them, Ru/SBA-15 showed excellent catalytic performance for reductive amination of carbonyl compounds, and the yields were more than 91%. The Ru nanoparticles (Ru NPs) were uniformly dispersed on the support, and the structure of the support was not destroyed. The acidity-basicity and the appropriate electron density are the reasons for the high activity and selectivity of supported Ru catalysts. The catalyst design concept with both electronic effect and acidity-basicity combination provides a new strategy for the conversion of biomass-based carbonyl compounds.