Sustainable Hydrogenation of Vinyl Derivatives Using Pd/C Catalysts

Abstract

The hydrogenation of unsaturated double bonds with molecular hydrogen is an efficient atom-economic approach to the production of a wide range of fine chemicals. In contrast to a number of reducing reagents typically involved in organic synthesis, hydrogenation with H2 is much more sustainable since it does not produce wastes (i.e., reducing reagent residues). However, its full sustainable potential may be achieved only in the case of easily separable catalysts and high reaction selectivity. In this work, various Pd/C catalysts were used for the liquid-phase hydrogenation of O-, S-, and N-vinyl derivatives with molecular hydrogen under mild reaction conditions (room temperature, pressure of 1 MPa). Complete conversion and high hydrogenation selectivity (>99%) were achieved by adjusting the type of Pd/C catalyst. Thus, the proposed procedure can be used as a sustainable method for vinyl group transformation by hydrogenation reactions. The discovery of the stability of active vinyl functional groups conjugated with heteroatoms (O, S, and N) under hydrogenation conditions over Pd/C catalysts opens the way for many useful transformations.