Hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines over a highly dispersed Ni/SiC catalyst without ammonia addition

Catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles is a green and efficient method to produce amines. However, it is still difficult to selectively obtain a specific amine. Herein, we report that a SiC supported highly dispersed Ni catalyst shows high performance for the hydrogenation of nitriles to corresponding primary amines without ammonia addition. Further studies reveal that the Ni/SiC catalyst has a high hydrogen spillover capacity; thus, the active H species dissociated on Ni can easily spill over to the SiC surface and react with the nitrile adsorbed and activated on SiC. Besides, the moderate basicity of Ni/SiC is also responsible for the increased selectivity of primary amines. This study provides a new idea and reference for designing selective nitrile hydrogenation catalysts. Ni/SiC showed high performance for the hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines without ammonia addition, which may originate from the natural properties of SiC and highly dispersed Ni species.