A Photoactive Catalyst Ru–g-C₃N₄ for Hydrogen Transfer Reaction of Aldehydes and Ketones

A photoactive catalyst Ru–g-C₃N₄ for hydrogen transfer reaction of aldehydes and ketones†

Priti Sharma, Yoel Sasson *

Casali Center of Applied Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry,

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904,

Email: priti.sharma@mail.huji.ac.il

Abstract

Literature shows homogeneous ruthenium catalysts faces some major problems like the formation of side products in substantial amounts, stoichiometric amount of inorganic base (as initiator of reaction), lower regioselectivity, high temperature (>80°C) and difficulty in separation of catalyst, stoichiometric amount of catalyst in hydrogen transfer reactions.^[1,2] A novel heterogeneous photoactive catalyst is developed by incorporating ruthenium over a new photoactive graphite carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) support for efficient photo catalytic transfer hydrogenation of various carbonyl functional group compounds with different alcohols. A synthesized photoactive catalyst Ru–g-C₃N₄ exhibits well to excellent reactivity with a high turnover number (TON) under mild reaction conditions and under visible light.^[3] The physicochemical properties of the photo catalyst were analyzed by XRD, BET analysis, TGA, FT-IR, XPS, UV-visible, ICP-OES, TEM and SEM characterization techniques. The main significant features of the photoactive catalyst Ru–g-C₃N₄ are viz., it is easy to handle in visible
light (LED lamp), does not require an external base, solvent free, non-toxic, environmentally friendly and proceeds under very mild reaction conditions. Furthermore, the solid photo catalyst Ru–g-C₃N₄ can be recycled efficiently and reused many times, without a major loss in reactivity.

Probable pathway for photocatalytic hydrogen transfer reaction

References.

1. Wang, G. Z., Bäckvall, J. E., Commun., 1992, 337.
2. Bäckvall, J. E., Chowdhury R. L., Karlsson, U., Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun., 1991, 7, 473.
3. Sharma P., Sasson, Y., Green Chem, 2017,19, 844.