Catalytic processes in water have a lower environmental impact, cost, and toxicity than in organic solvents. Considering the high content of water in biomass, it would be natural to use aqueous phase catalytic technology for the production of valuable products. However, in the aqueous phase, most metal-based catalysts suffer from low activity, low selectivity and deactivation due to metal oxidation and leaching. In this paper, we propose a solid micellar Ru catalyst (Ru(III)@MCM) based on single-site Ru^(III) species stabilized by cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA⁺) surfactant and immobilized in the walls of MCM-41 for the selective aqueous phase hydrogenation of carbonyl groups. This catalyst demonstrates exceptional selectivity, activity, and stability in comparison with conventional metallic catalysts. DFT modeling suggests that the reaction proceeds via heterolytic dissociation of hydrogen, forming a Ru-Hydride species, and subsequent hydride transfer to the carbonyl group. Water plays a key role in avoiding product inhibition.

与有机溶剂相比，水中的催化过程对环境的影响、成本和毒性都较低。考虑到生物质中水分含量高，使用水相催化技术生产有价值的产品是很自然的。然而，在水相中，大多数金属基催化剂由于金属氧化和浸出而存在活性低、选择性低和失活的问题。在本文中，我们提出了一种固体胶束的Ru催化剂（钌（III）@MCM）的基础上的单点的Ru ^（III）物种由十六烷基三稳定（CTA ⁺) 表面活性剂并固定在 MCM-41 的壁上，用于羰基的选择性水相氢化。与传统金属催化剂相比，该催化剂表现出卓越的选择性、活性和稳定性。DFT 模型表明，反应通过氢的异裂解离进行，形成 Ru-氢化物物质，随后氢化物转移到羰基。水在避免产品抑制方面起着关键作用。