One catalyst for two uses: TiOx–C acts as either a photocatalyst or thermocatalyst to promote reductive amination†
*a
Yujun
Zhao
b
Abstract
The selective reductive amination of carbonyl compounds is efficiently promoted using titanium oxide uniformly doped with carbon (TiOx–C), either as a photocatalyst or thermocatalyst. For the reductive amination of 3-phenylpropanal, 82.7% conversion of 3-phenylpropanal and 99.0% selectivity of N,N-dimethyl-3-phenylpropan-1-amine was achieved using TiOx–C as a photocatalyst at room temperature under visible light irradiation. In addition, 98.9% conversion with 99.0% product selectivity was attained at 90 °C under no light when TiOx–C was employed as a thermocatalyst. Therein, the efficient separation of photogenerated electron and holes of TiOx–C is the key factor during the photocatalytic process; while, the acidic sites of the surface and oxygen vacancies of TiOx–C are responsible for its high efficiency in the thermocatalytic reductive amination reaction.
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