Hydrodebromination of Aromatic Bromides Catalyzed by Unsupported Nanoporous Gold: Heterolytic Cleavage of Hydrogen Molecule

Unsupported nanoporous gold (AuNPore) is a highly efficient, practically applicable, and recyclable catalyst for hydrodebromination of aromatic bromides. The AuNPore-catalyzed hydrodebromination of aromatic bromides proceeded smoothly at relatively low hydrogen pressure and temperature to achieve good to excellent yields of the corresponding non-bromine variants. The selective hydrodebromination reaction occurred exclusively in the coexistence of chlorine atom. For the first time, a mechanistic study revealed that the H-H bond splits in a heterolysis manner on the surface of AuNPore to generate Au-H hydride species.