Reductive Amination of Furanic Aldehydes in Aqueous Solution over Versatile Ni y AlO x Catalysts.

We disclose in this study a Ni6AlO x catalyst prepared by coprecipitation for the reductive amination of biomass-derived aldehydes and ketones in aqueous ammonia under mild reaction conditions. The catalyst exhibited 99% yield toward 5-aminomethyl-2-furylmethanol in the reaction of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural with ammonia at 100 °C for 6 h under 1 bar H2. The catalyst was further extended to the reductive amination of a library of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes and ketones with a yield in the range 81-90% at optimized reaction conditions. Besides, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural could react with a library of primary and secondary amines with yields in the range 76-88%. The catalyst could be easily recycled and reused without apparent loss of activity in four consecutive runs.

Highly selective synthesis of 2,5-bis(aminomethyl)furan via catalytic amination of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural with NH3 over a bifunctional catalyst.

The development of facile protocols for the selective synthesis of biomass-derived diamine is a highly desirable pursuit in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, a simple and highly efficient bi-functional CuNiAlO x catalyst was developed for the one pot transformation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (5-HMF) into 2,5-bis(aminomethyl)furan (BAF) using a two-stage reaction process. Cu4Ni1Al4O x was found to be the most effective catalyst for this reaction, affording BAF in 85.9% yield. Our results could promote controllable conversion and utilization of biomass resource.