A Highly Dispersed Heterogeneous Cobalt Catalyst for Efficient Domino Hydroformylation Reductive Amination of Olefins

The hydroaminomethylation of alkenes using CO and H₂ proceeds efficiently in the presence of a heterogeneous Co-N/C catalyst with highly dispersed metal centers. Various secondary and tertiary amines can be effectively synthesized from cyclic and linear aliphatic alkenes using this specific material. The active sites of the optimal catalyst result from the synergistic effect of atomically dispersed Co sites with their surrounding N atoms, and the high surface area as well as structural defects of the NC support. The broad applicability (>54 examples), including pharmaceutically relevant molecules, together with the high activity and reusability, underline the general applicability of this catalytic system.