Design and synthesis of bimetallic catalysts for various environmentally benign organic transformations

Abstract

The investigation embodied in the thesis entitled “DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF BIMETALLIC CATALYSTS FOR VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTALLY BENIGN ORGANIC TRANSFORMATIONS” was initiated in July 2018 in the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Indore. The objectives of this thesis are synthesizing recyclable, bimetallic catalysts i.e., nanocatalysts and single atom catalysts for various organic transformations like hydrogenation, carboxylation, and CO2 fixation reactions. The focal points of the thesis are as follows- 1) Synthesis and characterization of Zn-Cu supported on mesoporous silica MCM-41 (ZnO-Cu(OH)Cl/MCM-41) for transfer hydrogenation of ketones with water as solvent and NaBH4 as reducing agent. 2) Bimetallic CoNi nanoflowers for reduction of terminal alkynes into alkanes using hydrazine hydrate as reducing agent and ethanol as solvent. 3) Bimetallic CuNi-12 nanoparticles with 1:2 molar ratio of Cu:Ni for hydrogenation of biomass derived furfural, cinnamaldehyde and 5-hydroxy methyl furfural (HMF) into corresponding alcohols using 2-propanol as hydrogen source, KOH as base. 4) Bimetallic CuNi-11 nanocatalyst (Cu:Ni = 1:1 molar ratio) for carboxylation of benzene to benzoic acid with solvent-free condition and HCOOH as carboxylating agent. 5) Co doped ZrO2 single atom catalysts for chemical fixation of CO2 into epoxides to cyclic carbonates with solvent free conditions. x This thesis includes seven chapters, and it starts with the general introduction of heterogeneous catalysis with focusing on nanoparticles and single atom catalysts strategies (Chapter 1), followed by synthesis of supported nanocatalyst (Chapter 2) for hydrogenation reactions, followed by utilization of bimetallic nanocatalysts hydrogenation of terminal alkynes (Chapter 3), hydrogenation of biomass derived furfural (Chapter 4), carboxylation of arenes (Chapter 5), and further synthesis of single atom catalysts for CO2 fixation reaction (Chapter 6). Finally, thesis concludes with the future perspective specially focusing further utilization of nanocatalysts and developing new strategies of synthesis of SACs (Chapter 7).