Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2025

Simple Methods for the Preparation of Non-noble Metal Bulk-electrodes for Electrocatalytic Applications
Published on: June 21, 2017
Practical electrochemical hydrogenation of nitriles at the nickel foam cathode
Rok Narobe1,2, Marcel Nicolas Perner1,2, María de Jesús Gálvez-Vázquez1
1Department of Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz 55128 Mainz Germany.
Abstract:
We report a scalable hydrogenation method for nitriles based on cost-effective materials in a very simple two-electrode setup under galvanostatic conditions. All components are commercially and readily available. The method is very easy to conduct and applicable to a variety of nitrile substrates, leading exclusively to primary amine products in yields of up to 89% using an easy work-up protocol. Importantly, this method is readily transferable from the milligram scale in batch-type screening cells to the multi-gram scale in a flow-type electrolyser. The transfer to flow electrolysis enabled us to achieve a notable 20 g day-1 productivity of phenylethylamine at a geometric current density of 50 mA cm-2 in a flow-type electrolyser with 48 cm2 electrodes. It is noteworthy that this method is sustainable in terms of process safety and reusability of components.
More Related Videos
08:40Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Nanotube with Doped Co and N Atoms and its Catalytic Applications in Hydrogen Production
Published on: December 6, 2021
10:57Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Reduction of Alkenes: Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...
Catalysis
Reduction of Alkenes: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Metals like palladium, platinum, and nickel are commonly used in their solid forms — fine powder on an inert surface. As these catalysts remain insoluble in the reaction mixture, they are referred to as heterogeneous catalysts.
The hydrogenation process takes place on the...
Nitriles to Amines: LiAlH4 Reduction
As shown below, the mechanism involves three steps. Firstly, the hydride ion acting as a nucleophile attacks the nitrile carbon to form an anion. In the second step, a second equivalent of the hydride ion attacks the anion to...
Preparation of Amines: Reduction of Amides and Nitriles
Amides can be reduced to primary, secondary, and tertiary amines using catalytic hydrogenation, active metals like Fe,...
Preparation of Nitriles