Reductive Amination of Furanic Aldehydes in Aqueous Solution over Versatile Ni AlO Catalysts.

We disclose in this study a NiAlO catalyst prepared by coprecipitation for the reductive amination of biomass-derived aldehydes and ketones in aqueous ammonia under mild reaction conditions. The catalyst exhibited 99% yield toward 5-aminomethyl-2-furylmethanol in the reaction of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural with ammonia at 100 °C for 6 h under 1 bar H. The catalyst was further extended to the reductive amination of a library of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes and ketones with a yield in the range 81-90% at optimized reaction conditions.

Ga2O3 photocatalyzed on-line tagging of cysteine to facilitate peptide mass fingerprinting.

β-Ga(2)O(3) is a wide-band-gap semiconductor having strong oxidation ability under light irradiation. Herein, the steel target plates modified with β-Ga(2)O(3) nanoparticles have been developed to carry out in-source photo-catalytic oxidative reactions for online peptide tagging during laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) analysis. Under UV laser irradiation, β-Ga(2)O(3) can catalyze the photo-oxidation of 2-methoxyhydroquinone added to a sample mixture to 2-methoxy benzoquinone that can further react with the thiol groups of cysteine residues by Michael addition reaction.

mpg-C(3)N(4)-Catalyzed selective oxidation of alcohols using O(2) and visible light.

Mesoporous carbon nitride (mpg-C(3)N(4)) polymer can function as a metal-free photocatalyst to activate O(2) for the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohols with visible light, avoiding the cost, toxicity, and purification problems associated with corresponding transition-metal systems. By combining the surface basicity and semiconductor functions of mpg-C(3)N(4), the photocatalytic system can realize a high catalytic selectivity to generate benzaldehyde. The metal-free photocatalytic system also selectively converts other alcohol substrates to their corresponding aldehydes/ketones, demonstrating a potential pathway of accessing traditional mild radical chemistry with nitroxyl radicals.

Gold supported on hydroxyapatite as a versatile multifunctional catalyst for the direct tandem synthesis of imines and oximes.

Two birds with one auric stone: The title system acts as a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the one-pot tandem synthesis of imines or oximes from alcohols and the corresponding amines under mild conditions (see scheme; HAP = hydroxyapatite).

Efficient and chemoselective reduction of carbonyl compounds with supported gold catalysts under transfer hydrogenation conditions.

A new heterogeneous catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) system, consisting of a non-flammable supported Au catalyst along with 2-propanol as the hydrogen donor, was proven to be effective for chemoselective reduction of a wide range of aromatic ketones and aldehydes to the corresponding alcohols.