Application of boron nitride as solid acid-base catalyst

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K14474
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Catalyst/Resource chemical process
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Takagaki Atsushi 東京大学, 大学院工学系研究科(工学部), 助教 (30456157)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 窒化ホウ素 / ニトロアルドール反応 / クネーベナゲル縮合反応 / 固体酸塩基触媒 / 反応機構

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This work explores the use of boron nitride as a novel catalyst with base and acid functionalities. For use as a solid catalyst, the layered structure of h-BN was disrupted by ball-milling, exposing boron and nitrogen edge-sites as well as increasing the surface area from 3 to ca. 400 m2 g-1. FTIR, XPS and 1H MAS NMR measurements indicated simultaneous and adjacent formation of amino and hydroxyl groups by milling, which function as Brønsted base and acid sites, respectively. Despite its weak basicity, the ball-milled h-BN showed high activity and selectivity toward beta-nitroalkenes for the nitroaldol reaction and the Knoevenagel condensation, whereas non-treated h-BN did not show activity. This study shows the high catalytic activity of BN, a solid catalyst with moderate basicity and weak acidity.

Free Research Field

触媒化学