Bifunctional heterogeneous catalysis of silica-alumina-supported tertiary amines with controlled acid-base...

We report the first tunable bifunctional surface of silica-alumina-supported tertiary amines (SA-NEt(2)) active for catalytic 1,4-addition reactions of nitroalkanes and thiols to electron-deficient alkenes. The 1,4-addition reaction of nitroalkanes to electron-deficient alkenes is one of the most useful carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions and applicable toward a wide range of organic syntheses. The reaction between nitroethane and methyl vinyl ketone scarcely proceeded with either SA or homogeneous amines, and a mixture of SA and amines showed very low catalytic activity. In addition, undesirable side reactions occurred in the case of a strong base like sodium ethoxide employed as a catalytic reagent. Only the present SA-supported amine (SA-NEt(2)) catalyst enabled selective formation of a double-alkylated product without promotions of side reactions such as an intramolecular cyclization reaction. The heterogeneous SA-NEt(2) catalyst was easily recovered from the reaction mixture by simple filtration and reusable with retention of its catalytic activity and selectivity. Furthermore, the SA-NEt(2) catalyst system was applicable to the addition reaction of other nitroalkanes and thiols to various electron-deficient alkenes. The solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopic analyses, including variable-contact-time (13)C cross-polarization (CP)/MAS NMR spectroscopy, revealed that acid-base interactions between surface acid sites and immobilized amines can be controlled by pretreatment of SA at different temperatures. The catalytic activities for these addition reactions were strongly affected by the surface acid-base interactions.