Towards Economic and Sustainable Amination with Green and Renewable Feedstocks

The synthesis of N-substituted amines is one of the key transformations in synthetic chemistry and chemical industry, because amines are ubiquitous in the syntheses of agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, flavorings, fragrances, and advanced materials. In order to realize the clean and economic synthesis of N-substituted amines, several aspects should be concerned. 1) The application of alkyl halides as alkylation reagents should be replaced by alcohol and alkane; 2) the employment of amines as nitrogen sources can be replaced by nitrobenzene, nitrile and ammonia; 3) the application of environmentally benign and low-cost starting materials, such as CO2, HCHO, biomass resources, for the nitrogen-containing chemicals synthesis should be established; and 4) economic, green and efficient catalyst should be developed for the above transformations. In this account, we describe our results in the clean and economic synthesis of N-substituted amines with amine, ammonia, nitrobenzene or nitrile as nitrogen sources and alcohol, alkane or CO2, HCHO, CO, and biomass resources as alkylation or carbonylation reagents. What is the most favorite and original chemistry developed in your research group? Efficient and economic heterogeneous catalyst for catalytic amination. How do you get into this specific field? Could you please share some experiences with our readers? I got my introduction to fine chemical synthesis with heterogeneous catalyst during the post-graduate and post-doctor periods. Till now, the clean and economic synthesis of some fine chemicals still remains a big problem in China. Therefore, our group has been concentrating on catalyst design and preparation for amination since 11 years ago. Typically, we want to explore some novel catalyst systems to bridge the heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. What is the most important personality for scientific research? I think the originality and creativity are very important for the scientific research. What are your hobbies? What's your favorite book(s)? Reading and walking. I like to read history books. How do you keep balance between research and family? Although it is difficult, I try to keep a balance between research and family. Who influences you mostly in your life? My Ph.D. supervisor, Prof. Youquan Deng, and postdoctoral collaborating advisor, Prof. Matthias Beller.