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[18,22]
the aldehyde reacted immediately to form the amide product
nucleophile.
Ruthenium, on the other hand, has been the
(
cross-coupling).
most commonly used material for this reaction in the homoge-
neous phase owing to the generation of highly active rutheni-
um-bound methoxy species, which were even more active in
The selectivity for primary alcohol oxidation depended on
the alkoxy chain length, which was attributed to the varying
ease of b elimination of hydrogen. As gas-phase studies re-
vealed, the selectivity for aldehyde production increased with
increasing alkoxy chain length due to the greater tendency for
b elimination, meaning 1-butanol almost exclusively produced
[23]
coupling with amines than with the free aldehyde. Rutheni-
um and silver were deposited on npAu by surface-limited
[24]
redox replacement. Both the silver-doped nanoporous gold
samples (Ag-npAu, Figure 3) and the ruthenium-doped sam-
ples (Ru-npAu) were generated reproducibly with dopant con-
centrations below 3 at% for both sample types, as confirmed
by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) mapping (for
detailed preparation and characterization, see the Experimental
Section).
[
2a,21]
the corresponding aldehyde butanal.
In the liquid-phase
reaction of methanol, ethanol, or n-propanol with dimethyla-
mine, we found a distinct trend of increasing conversion rates
with increasing alcohol chain length (Figure 2b). As compared
to the results of the gas-phase study, this was indirect evi-
dence for the formation of intermediary aldehyde species.
Aligning the experimental results in this study with the model
derived from experiments on a single crystalline surface under
[
17]
UHV conditions, we propose an extended reaction mecha-
nism of the alcohol–amine coupling including liquid-phase oxi-
dation of methanol on npAu (Scheme 1).
In the next set of experiments, differently substituted aro-
matic amines were coupled with methanol. The corresponding
amide was formed exclusively at temperatures as low as 408C
in satisfying yield (Table 1). The introduction of electron-donat-
Table 1. Oxidative coupling of aromatic amines with methanol by using
[
a]
npAu catalysts.
Entry
1
Amine
Product
Yield [%]
42
Selectivity [%]
100
Figure 3. Cross-sectional scanning electron micrographs of silver-doped
npAu with elemental mapping, revealing a homogenous deposition of silver
over the whole sample (2–3 at% Ag, determined by EDX).
The catalytic performance of the metal-doped nanoporous
gold samples (Ag-npAu, Ru-npAu) was tested by performing
the formylation reaction between methanol and dimethyla-
mine in the autoclave setup (Figure 4). By doping the npAu
with silver, the conversion to DMF could be increased by ap-
2
3
30
58
100
100
À1
proximately 33% (turnover frequency=52 h ). With the Ru-
[
a] Reaction conditions: amine (0.1 mmol), methanol (excess as solvent),
doped npAu samples, the activity could be increased by
À1
À1
oxygen flow (50 mLmin , ambient pressure), reflux setup, 408C, 20 h.
a factor of approximately 2.5 (turnover frequency=97 h ).
Even though the amount of deposited silver (2–3 at%) was
higher compared to that of ruthenium (0.25–2 at%), use of the
latter resulted in almost twice as much conversion (Figure 4)
indicating that the Ru-npAu combination was preferable for
amide bond formation. With respect to the ruthenium com-
plexes used in homogeneous catalysis, surface-bound methoxy
could only be formed on the metal if strong s donor and weak
p acceptor ligands were used to create an electron-rich ruthe-
ing or withdrawing groups in aromatic amines for altering nu-
cleophilicity of the amine appeared, however, not to have a no-
ticeable influence on the reactivity. These findings were in line
with the UHV results, which showed that neither activation of
the NÀH bond nor nucleophilic attack (Scheme 1, step 2) of
the amine were rate-determining steps.
[11d,25]
nium center.
An explanation for the higher catalytic activi-
An optimization of the catalytic activity according to the ob-
tained mechanistic insights must address either the oxygen
availability on the surface (step 1) or the conversion of the al-
cohol to the aldehyde (step 3). We chose silver and ruthenium
as reasonable dopants for npAu. Silver was demonstrated to
efficiently dissociate molecular oxygen, generating atomic
oxygen on the catalyst surface as a Brønsted base and strong
ty of the Ru-npAu-material would thus involve a transfer of
[26]
electron density from the gold substrate to the ruthenium,
similar to the action of ligands in homogeneous ruthenium
catalysts.
In summary, this unsupported nanoporous gold catalyst pro-
vides an ideal platform for studying the key parameters for the
coupling of alcohols and amines. The structural simplicity of
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