Silica-supported Fe/Fe–O nanoparticles for the catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles to amines in the presence of aluminium additives

Abstract The hydrogenation of nitriles to amines represents an important and frequently used industrial process due the broad applicability resulting products in chemistry life sciences. Despite existing portfolio catalysts reported for nitriles, development iron-based heterogeneous this is still a challenge. Here, we show that impregnation pyrolysis iron(II) acetate on commercial silica produces reusable Fe/Fe–O@SiO 2 catalyst with well-defined structure comprising fayalite phase at Si–Fe interface ?-Fe nanoparticles, covered by ultrathin amorphous iron(III) oxide layer, growing from matrix. These Fe/Fe–O core–shell presence catalytic amounts aluminium additives, promote all kinds including structurally challenging functionally diverse aromatic, heterocyclic, aliphatic fatty produce primary under scalable industrially viable conditions.