Efficient hydrogenation of aliphatic amides to amines over vanadium-modified rhodium supported catalyst

Abstract This work presents a highly efficient catalytic hydrogenation system developed for the selective transformation of tertiary N,N-dimethyldodecanamide and secondary azepan-2-one amides to the corresponding amines. Industrial hydrogenation catalysts Pd/Al2O3, Pt/Al2O3 and Rh/Al2O3 were modified with vanadium (V) or molybdenum (Mo) species as oxophilic centres. The modified catalysts were prepared by deposition of V or Mo precursor on supported catalysts via impregnation method. The catalysts were characterized by ICP-OES, XRD, XPS, H2-TPR, FTIR, CO-chemisorption, TEM, SEM-EDX and TGA. Modified Rh-V/Al2O3 catalyst displayed the best performance affording high yield and selectivity > 95 % to the desired tertiary and secondary amines at moderate reaction conditions of T O bond of the carboxamides into the desired amines.