Practical electrochemical hydrogenation of nitriles at the nickel foam cathode.

We report a scalable hydrogenation method for nitriles based on cost-effective materials in a very simple two-electrode setup under galvanostatic conditions. All components are commercially and readily available. The method is very easy to conduct and applicable to a variety of nitrile substrates, leading exclusively to primary amine products in yields of up to 89% using an easy work-up protocol. Importantly, this method is readily transferable from the milligram scale in batch-type screening cells to the multi-gram scale in a flow-type electrolyser. The transfer to flow electrolysis enabled us to achieve a notable 20 g day-1 productivity of phenylethylamine at a geometric current density of 50 mA cm-2 in a flow-type electrolyser with 48 cm2 electrodes. It is noteworthy that this method is sustainable in terms of process safety and reusability of components.

Cobalt-Catalyzed Alkylation of Aromatic Amines by Alcohols.

The implementation of inexpensive, Earth-abundant metals in typical noble-metal-mediated chemistry is a major goal in homogeneous catalysis. A sustainable or green reaction that has received a lot of attention in recent years and is preferentially catalyzed by Ir or Ru complexes is the alkylation of amines by alcohols. It is based on the borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer concept. Herein, we report on the Co-catalyzed alkylation of aromatic amines by alcohols. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions, and selectively generates monoalkylated amines. The observed selectivity allows the synthesis of unsymmetrically substituted diamines. A novel Co complex stabilized by a PN5 P ligand catalyzes the reactions most efficiently.

A Highly Active and Easily Accessible Cobalt Catalyst for Selective Hydrogenation of C═O Bonds.

The substitution of high-price noble metals such as Ir, Ru, Rh, Pd, and Pt by earth-abundant, inexpensive metals like Co is an attractive goal in (homogeneous) catalysis. Only two examples of Co catalysts, showing efficient C═O bond hydrogenation rates, are described. Here, we report on a novel, easy-to-synthesize Co catalyst family. Catalyst activation takes place via addition of 2 equiv of a metal base to the cobalt dichlorido precatalysts. Aldehydes and ketones of different types (dialkyl, aryl-alkyl, diaryl) are hydrogenated quantitatively under mild conditions partially with catalyst loadings as low as 0.25 mol%. A comparison of the most active Co catalyst with an Ir catalyst stabilized by the same ligand indicates the superiority of Co. Unique selectivity toward C═O bonds in the presence of C═C bonds has been observed. This selectivity is opposite to that of existing Co catalysts and surprising because of the directing influence of a hydroxyl group in C═C bond hydrogenation.