Eco-friendly hydrogenation of aromatic aldehyde compounds by tandem dehydrogenation of dimethylamine-borane in the presence of a reduced graphene oxide furnished platinum nanocatalyst

In this study, highly monodisperse platinum nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide in the presence of tripentylamine (TPA) (Pt(0)/TPA@rGO NPs) are used as a stable, isolable, bottleable, long-lived, highly efficient and exceptionally reusable heterogeneous catalyst for eco-friendly hydrogenation of various aromatic aldehyde compounds with unprecendented catalytic performance. Pt(0)/TPA@rGO NPs have been used for the first time for these types of synthesis reactions and these NPs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Herein, the catalyst has been used for tandem dehydrogenation of dimethylamine-borane (DMAB) and hydrogenation of aromatic aldehyde compounds in aqueous methanol at room temperature in reaction times ranging from 1.0 to 25 min with yields reaching up to 95%. The presented catalytic methodology is highly efficient as well as having exceptional reusability performance. This process can be assessed as an eco-friendly method with both a reusable reduced GO-supported platinum nanocatalyst and a hydrogen source (DMAB).