Chemoselective heterogeneous iridium catalyzed hydrogenation of cinnamalaniline

International audience; Selective hydrogenation of unsaturated imines over heterogeneous catalysts is an ecologically feasible and effective way to produce commercially valuable saturated imines and unsaturated amines under mild conditions, avoiding the utilization of toxic halides. The liquid-phase hydrogenation of a model imine, cinnamalaniline, over Ir, Ru, Pd and Au catalysts was studied in polar protic (methanol, 2-propanol), polar aprotic (methyl tert-butyl ether) and non-polar aprotic (toluene) solvents at 40-80°C under atmospheric hydrogen pressure. Different metal oxides (Al 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 , SiO 2) and carbon composites based on carbon nitrides synthesized by pyrolysis of ethylenedi…

Isomerization of α-pinene oxide over ZSM-5 based micro-mesoporous materials

Abstract Few types of ZSM-5 based micro-mesoporous materials obtained via a dual template method, steam-assisted conversion and dual-functional templating were evaluated in α-pinene oxide isomerization. Complete conversion and the highest selectivity towards trans-carveol (ca. 40–43%) were achieved over X-ray amorphous micro-mesoporous aluminosilicates as well as mesoporous molecular sieves AlSi-SBA-15. In addition, X-ray amorphous samples containing the secondary building units of ZSM-5 zeolite demonstrated the highest rate of α-pinene oxide isomerization. The yield of the most desired product trans-carveol to a large extent depends on the accessibility of acid sites to the reagents molecu…

Oxidative dehydrogenation of alcohols on gold : An experimental and computational study on the role of water and the alcohol chain length

The oxidative dehydrogenation of primary alcohols promoted by gold nanoparticles was investigated from an experimental and computational viewpoint to derive a plausible reaction mechanism and to understand the role of water and alcohol chain length in the elementary steps. The influence of water in reaction kinetics and product distribution was determined in a laboratory-scale microreactor adding water to the reaction mixture in different amounts. DFT calculations revealed that the presence of water on the catalyst surface is beneficial to assist the key step in alcohol oxidation i.e., oxygen activation by protonation. The calculations were performed for primary alcohols ranging from methan…

Synthesis of Chiral Catalyst Modifiers by Hydrosilylation of Cinchonidine and Their Application in the Hydrogenation of 1-Phenylpropane-1,2-dione and Ethyl Pyruvate on a Supported Pt/Al2O3 Catalyst

Four new chiral modifiers were synthesized in order to investigate the effect of distal modifier substitution in the hydrogenation of ethyl pyruvate and 1-phenylpropane-1,2-dione on a supported Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. The chiral modifiers were prepared in good to moderate overall yields by Pt-catalyzed hydrosilylation of 9-O-TMS-protected cinchonidine with triethylsilane, triphenylsilane, bis(dimethylsilyl)ethane and (+)-(R)-methyl(1-naphthyl)phenylsilane followed by cleavage of the silyl ether protective group. Comparison of the synthesized modifiers in enantioselective hydrogenation using cinchonidine as reference modifier is reported, as well as details on their synthesis and characterization…

l-Arabinose Conformers Adsorption on Ruthenium Surfaces: A DFT Study

Adsorption of 5 L-arabinose tautomers – one acyclic and four cyclic (α and β, pyranose and furanose) species – on a ruthenium surface was studied as a precursor-process of the, nowadays more and more, industrially important sugar catalytic hydrogenation on metal surfaces in water medium. The study was mostly referred to a 37-atom metal catalyst fragment, even though border-effects on the adsorption processes were also checked employing a 61-atom metal fragment. In order to figure out conformational effects on the title process the tautomer flexibility was, at first, investigated by the genetic-algorithm based code Balloon, considering the conformational spaces of the different aquo tautomer…

Racemization of Secondary-Amine-Containing Natural Products Using Heterogeneous Metal Catalysts

Investigation of Polyol Adsorption on Ru, Pd, and Re Using vdW Density Functionals

Biomass-based feedstocks are often oxygenated compounds characterized by large amounts of hydroxyls. As an example, polyols and sugar alcohols are largely employed as reactants for different chemical catalytic transformations such as oxidation, dehydration, and hydrodeoxigenation, which usually occur in aqueous medium. With the goal of gaining new insights into processes that could be industrially relevant, the adsorption of the OH groups on metal surfaces and in the presence of water has to be correctly reproduced and described, within a chosen theoretical framework. Toward this goal, several tests were performed on the catalytically relevant metal Ru, Pd, and Re, benchmarking their bulk a…

Kinetic Modeling of Ethyl Benzoylformate Enantioselective Hydrogenation over Pt/Al2O3

A kinetic model was developed for the enantioselective hydrogenation of ethyl benzoylformate (EBF) on a modified Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. This model was based on the assumption of different numbers of si...

Hydrogenolysis of hydroxymatairesinol on Y derived catalysts: a computational study

Hydrogenolysis of 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR) to matairesinol (MAT) occurs on palladium supported acidic catalysts. HMR has three stereochemical centres and naturally exists as a mixture of two diastereoisomers, namely RRR-HMR and SRR-HMR. The latter is significantly more reactive than the former, in the reaction above. In order to elucidate the hydrogenolysis mechanism, simple surface events involving HMR derivatives on aluminated faujasite (H-Y) fragments were simulated by quantum chemical calculations. The metallic function of a Pd/H-Y acidic catalyst was also mimicked by a minimal palladium cluster. Stereochemical evidences pointed already out that water β-elimination on the epimeric ce…

Systematic conformational search analysis of the SRR and RRR epimers of 7-hydroxymatairesinol

An extensive and systematic conformational search was performed on the two epimers of the natural lignan 7-hydroxymatairesinol (HMR), by means of a home-made Systematic Conformational Search Analysis (SCSA) code, designed to select more and more stable conformers through sequential geometry optimization of trial structures at increasing levels of calculation theory. In the present case, the starting molecular structures were selected by the semi-empirical AM1 method and filtered – i.e. decreased in number by choosing the more stable species – on the basis of their energy calculated by the HF method and the 6-31G(d) basis set. The geometries obtained were further refined by performing densit…

The influence of various synthesis methods on the catalytic activity of cerium oxide in one-pot synthesis of diethyl carbonate starting from CO2, ethanol and butylene oxide

Different synthesis methods such as homogeneous precipitation at room temperature and supercritical water (T > 647 K and P > 22.1 MPa) were employed for cerium oxide preparation. Additionally, deposition of ceria on silica mesoporous material, SBA-15, was carried out. The obtained materials were characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and CO2 temperature programmed desorption. Considerable variations in physico-chemical properties of the resulting materials were observed. The catalytic activities of pristine cerium oxide and ceria loaded on SBA-15 support were…

Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Ethanol on Gold : Combination of Kinetic Experiments and Computation Approach to Unravel the Reaction Mechanism

Abstract Selective alcohol dehydrogenation on heterogeneous catalysts is a key industrial reaction for production of aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic compounds. Design of catalysts with improved activity and selectivity requires understanding of the reaction mechanism and kinetics. Herein, experiments, density functional theory (DFT) and kinetic modelling were combined to elucidate the mechanism and kinetics of ethanol oxidative dehydrogenation to acetaldehyde on gold catalysts. Catalytic experiments clearly emphasized the role of oxygen in this reaction. Ethanol conversion was rather independent on the gold cluster size. Formation of minor products, acetic acid and ethyl acetate was stru…

Oxygen-assisted hydroxymatairesinol dehydrogenation: a selective secondary-alcohol oxidation over a gold catalyst.

Selective dehydrogenation of the biomass-derived lignan hydroxymatairesinol (HMR) to oxomatairesinol (oxoMAT) was studied over an Au/Al(2)O(3) catalyst. The reaction was carried out in a semi-batch glass reactor at 343 K under two different gas atmospheres, namely produced through synthetic air or nitrogen. The studied reaction is, in fact, an example of secondary-alcohol oxidation over an Au catalyst. Thus, the investigated reaction mechanism of HMR oxidative dehydrogenation is useful for the fundamental understanding of other secondary-alcohol dehydrogenation over Au surfaces. To investigate the elementary catalytic steps ruling both oxygen-free- and oxygen-assisted dehydrogenation of HMR…

A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Approach for Platinum Catalyzed 1,2-Propanediol Aqueous Phase Reforming

Decomposition pathways of 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PDO) on platinum were investigated by means of experiments and quantum-mechanical calculations. Different reaction paths on a Pt(111) model surface were computationally screened. Gas and liquid phase products distribution for aqueous phase reforming of 1,2-PDO solutions was experimentally analyzed. A mechanistic approach was used to trace the preferred paths according to calculated activation barriers of the elementary steps; in this way, the presence or absence of some hypothesized intermediates in the experiments was computationally rationalized. Hydroxyacetone was demonstrated to be among the most favored decomposition products. The competit…

Confined But-2-ene catalytic isomerization inside H-ZSM-5 models: A DFT study

The isomerization of cis-but-2-ene to trans-but-2-ene within a 22T H-ZSM-5 zeolite model, also in the presence of two adsorbed Pd atoms, has been studied by DFT calculations. The results obtained allow us to state that the cis/trans but-2-ene isomerization can easily proceed inside unsupported zeolite cavities. In this case, differently than in the gas phase reaction, the trans-but-2-ene is less stable than the cis-but-2-ene, when adsorbed on the zeolite inner surface. Excluding the adsorption-desorption steps, the isomerization process involves two intermediates and three transition states, whose energy content is always very low with respect to that of reagents and intermediate species. T…

A combined NMR, DFT, and X-ray investigation of some cinchona alkaloid O-ethers.

Structures and conformational behavior of several cinchona alkaloid O-ethers in the solid state (X-ray), in solution (NMR and DFT), and in the gas phase (DFT) were investigated. In the crystal, O-phenylcinchonidine adopts the Open(3) conformation similar to cinchonidine, whereas the O-methyl ether derivatives of both cinchonidine and cinchonine are packed in the Closed(1) conformation. Dynamic equilibria in solutions of the alkaloids were revealed by combined experimental-theoretical spin simulation/iteration techniques for the first time. In the (1)H NMR spectra in CDCl3 and toluene-d8 at room temperature, Closed(1) conformation was observed for the O-silyl ethers as a separate set of sign…