Selective Hydrogenation of Nitriles to Primary Amines on Metal-supported Catalysts

D.J. SEGOBIA; A.F. TRASARTI; C.R. APESTEGUÍA

Louisville

Congreso; 23rd North American Catalysis Society Meeting; 2013

The hydrogenation of nitriles via homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis is an important route to produce the corresponding amines that are widely used in industry as intermediates for funguicides, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals. Although saturated nitriles are initially hydrogenated to primary amines, the condensation reactions between the highly reactive imine intermediate and amines usually produce also secondary and tertiary amines. Unsupported Raney Co and Ni catalysts have been widely employed in liquidphase but supported-metal catalysts, specially using transition metals, have been lately studied in an attempt to overcome the difficulties of handling Raney catalysts. In this work, we have studied the liquid-phase hydrogenation of butyronitrile to n-butylamine on Ni, Co, Ru, Cu, Pd, and Pt metals supported on an inert single oxide (silica), using ethanol as solvent and without the presence of any additive such as ammonia in the reactor.