One-pot reductive amination of carbonyl compounds with nitro compounds with CO/H2O as the hydrogen donor over non-noble cobalt catalyst

The one-pot reductive amination of carbonyl compounds with nitro compounds over heterogeneous non-noble metal catalysts was developed for the first time by transfer hydrogenation with CO/H2O as the hydrogen donor. Nitrogen-doped carbon supported cobalt nanoparticles were observed to be active toward this reaction, affording structurally-diverse secondary amines with high yields. Kinetic studies revealed that the transfer hydrogenation of imines (C N bonds) was the rate-determining step. Reaction mechanism studies indicated that both nitrogen and cobalt nanoparticles were important for the transfer hydrogenation with CO/H2O to generate the proton (N H+) and hydride (Co H−) as the active species. Furthermore, the heterogeneous cobalt catalyst was highly stable without the loss of its catalytic activity during the recycling experiments.