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Project

Innovative catalytic materials for the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of 2° and 3° amides

The reduction of amides is an important method for the synthesis of amines. These compounds are used in a wide range of applications, including agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, detergents, personal care etc. Although the use of H2 for these difficult reactions got quite some attention in recent years, reports on heterogeneous catalysts for these transformations are scarce; they are deactivated by water formed during hydrogenation and very little is known about the mechanisms that drive the selectivity of these reactions. C-O vs. C-N bond scission of 2° and 3° amides determines whether a larger amine, or an alcohol and a smaller amine are formed via hydrogenation or hydrogenolysis, respectively. To gain fundamental insight in these transformations and to investigate the behaviour of known and new catalytic materials in green solvents, a library of catalytic materials will be prepared and thoroughly characterised. Structureactivity and -selectivity relationships will be deduced by performing model reactions with the catalysts. Subsequently, two challenging applications will capitalise on the deep understanding gathered in the first part. Catalytic systems that strongly favour hydrogenolysis will be selected to investigate the hydrogenolytic recovery of diol and diamine building blocks from polyamide waste, and systems that favour hydrogenation will be applied for the continuous methylation of amines with CO2 using the long-term stable catalysts designed in this project.
 

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  23 Sep 2019
Keywords:catalytic materials, hydrogenation, hydrogenolysis
Disciplines:Catalysis and reacting systems engineering, Chemical product design and formulation, General chemical and biochemical engineering, Process engineering, Separation and membrane technologies, Transport phenomena, Other (bio)chemical engineering, Analytical chemistry, Macromolecular and materials chemistry