Controllable cyanation of carbon-hydrogen bonds by zeolite crystals over manganese oxide catalyst.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28504259.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15240 and PMC identifier 5440663.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The synthesis of organic nitriles without using toxic cyanides is in great demand but challenging to make. Here we report an environmentally benign and cost-efficient synthesis of nitriles from the direct oxidative cyanation of primary carbon-hydrogen bonds with easily available molecular oxygen and urea. The key to this success is to design and synthesize manganese oxide catalysts fixed inside zeolite crystals, forming a manganese oxide catalyst with zeolite sheath (MnO<sub>x</sub>@S-1), which exhibits high selectivity for producing nitriles by efficiently facilitating the oxidative cyanation reaction and hindering the side hydration reaction. The work delineates a sustainable strategy for synthesizing nitriles while avoiding conventional toxic cyanide, which might open a new avenue for selective transformation of carbon-hydrogen bonds.