Precapture of CO and Hydrogenation into Methanol on Heterogenized Ruthenium and Amine-Rich Catalytic Systems.

A heterogenized alternative to the homogeneous precapture of CO with amines and subsequent hydrogenation to MeOH was developed using aminated silica and a Ru-MACHO catalyst. Commercial mesoporous silica was modified with three different amino-silane monomers and used as support for the Ru catalyst. These composites were studied by TEM and solid-state NMR spectroscopy before and after the catalytic reaction. These catalytic reactions were conducted at 155 °C at a H and CO pressures of 75 and 2 bar, respectively, with the heterogeneous system (gas-solid) being probed with gas-phase infrared spectroscopy used to quantify the resulting products. High turnover number (TON) values were observed for the samples aminated with secondary amines.