Revealing efficient catalytic performance of N-CuOx for aerobic oxidative coupling of aliphatic alkynes: A Langmuir—Hinshelwood reaction mechanism

• Published in: Nano research 2022-07, Vol.15 (7), p.6076-6083
• Main Authors: Tang, Jun, Jiao, Bowen, Chen, Wei, Ruan, Fei, Li, Fengfeng, Cui, Peixin, Wan, Chao, Ha, Minh Ngoc, Nguyen, Van Noi, Ke, Qingping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aliphatic compounds; Alkynes; Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Catalysts; Catalytic oxidation; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Copper; Copper oxides; Couplings; Dopants; Graphene; Materials Science; Nanotechnology; Nitrogen; Reaction mechanisms; Research Article; Synergistic effect
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4323-5

Oxidative couplings of aliphatic alkynes are crucial for the production of naturally occurring 1,3-diynes. Herein we report the novel approach for effective synthesis of unsaturated coordinated N doped copper oxides (N-CuO x ) catalyst, and uncover that N-CuO x catalyst as an additive-free and cost-effective heterogeneous catalyst has highly catalytic performance for directly oxidative coupling of aliphatic alkynes. The key to achieve efficient oxidative coupling of aliphatic alkynes is the synergistic effect of N species and uncoordinated O/Cu species caused by N dopants, which undergoes the Langmuir-Hinshelwood reaction mechanism. The N-CuO x catalyst displays ∼ 89.1% yield for hexadeca-7,9-diyne under mild conditions and stable reusability (5 cycles), showing significant advances compared with the traditionally copper oxides. These findings highlight the heteroatom dopants that provide a new methodology for designing efficient copper catalysts in synthesis of naturally occurring 1,3-diynes.