Preparation of mesoporous chitosan iron supported nano-catalyst for the catalyzed oxidation of primary amine to imine

Abstract

Supported nano-catalysts with environmental sustainability and high catalytic performance are of great research interest for sustainable catalysis. In this article, a supported nano-catalyst, FeA-NC, with high catalytic performance was prepared by anchoring the transition metal iron onto nitrogen-doped porous carbon materials using chitosan as a raw material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) measurement results demonstrated that the obtained catalyst has an excellent mesoporous structure, and that the element Fe is evenly distributed. The support contains abundant N atoms, which can provide sufficient anchoring points for Fe and form Fe–N_x groups with Fe, improving the catalytic activity of the catalyst. Additionally, the FeA-NC with a porous structure can also enhance the mass transfer of reactants to improve the reaction efficiency. In addition, the prepared catalyst was used to catalyze the conversion of primary amines to the corresponding imines. The results showed that the direct oxidation of primary amines to the corresponding imines can be catalyzed by using air as an oxygen source and distilled H₂O as a solvent under atmospheric pressure at 90 °C. Finally, the selectivity and stability of the as-prepared catalyst were also verified.