Highly Selective Synthesis of Primary Amines from Alcohols and Ammonia By Heterogeneous Nickel Catalysis

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Highly Selective Synthesis of Primary Amines from Alcohols and Ammonia by Heterogeneous Nickel Catalysis

N-alkylations of ammonia (NH₃) with alcohols are important industrial processes. This study reports a heterogeneous catalyst system of Ni supported on Al₂O₃/SiO₂. This catalyst achieves high conversions and selectivities when producing primary amines by reacting alcohols and gaseous NH₃. This is a rare example of heterogeneous non-noble-metal catalytic system for this reaction, using the hydrogen borrowing mechanism, in which water is the only by-product and no external hydrogen is required. This catalyst is characterised and studied, and a new catalyst system is prepared with a comparable activity as the commercial one.

The reaction using benzyl alcohol is also compared with that of a gold catalyst on titania and their reaction kinetics are modelled and rates are determined. Kindly see attached figures below.