ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Metal-free nanodiamond catalyst for alcohol–amine oxidative coupling to imine

Shaolin Shi, Huanshi Lan, Chenfa Tao, Ying Zhang, Hao Zhang, Qingdi Sun, Xingcong Zhang, Guanghui Guo, Qian He, Xiaohui He, and Hongbing Ji

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, China

E-mail: heqian27@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Received: 2 November 2022  Accepted: 2 February 2023

Abstract:

Metal-free catalyst in imine synthesis was a great challenge due to the continuous rise in metal prices and unfriendly massive mining of metal. Herein, sp²/sp³ hybridization nanodiamond–graphene (ND@G) was obtained by simple heat treatment of the commercially nanodiamonds (ND) under argon atmosphere, the as-prepared catalyst showed excellent activity and selectivity for directly imine synthesis. The physical structure changes of nanodiamond before and after heat treatment were well-characterization, and it was found that the nanodiamond surface layer changed from disordered sp³ hybridized carbon to sp²/sp³ core–shell structure. This study demonstrates the possibility of using metal-free catalysts for imine synthesis by nanodiamond.

Keywords: Metal-free; Imines synthesis; Nanodiamonds; sp2/sp3 hybridization; Alcohol–amine oxidative coupling

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-023-02717-3

Chemical Papers 77 (6) 3495–3500 (2023)