Highly Dispersed Ru Nanoclusters Anchored on Hexagonal Boron Nitride for Efficient and Stable Hydrogenation of Aromatic Amines to Alicyclic Amines

Saturated hydrogenation of aromatic amines is a crucialmethodologyfor synthesizing alicyclic amines. The dispersion of Ru atoms occurredafter chemical reduction treatment, which was constrained to B andN coordination, further promoting the Ru species' uniform distributionthrough interaction with the B-N bond of boron nitride. Moreover,the Ru coordinated with h-BN and further formed the stable catalyticactive center. By virtue of its excellent stability, the hydrogenationof MDA executed in the fixed-bed reactor could run for more than 200h. However, the density functional theory showed that the hydrogenationrate of the second benzene ring was comparatively slower because ofthe strong intermediate adsorption during the conversion from 4,4 & PRIME;-diaminodiphenylmethaneto 4,4 & PRIME;-diaminodicyclohexylmethane. Furthermore, Ru/h-BN exhibitedexcellent performance in the hydrogenation of other aromatic amines,resulting in corresponding alicyclic amines. Therefore, this researchoffers a stable and effective catalyst for the green hydrogenationof aromatic amines leading to the production of alicyclic amines.