Electrochemical Hydrogenation with Gaseous Ammonia

Jin Li; Lingfeng He; Xu Liu; Xu Cheng; Guigen Li

doi:10.1002/anie.201813464

Electrochemical Hydrogenation with Gaseous Ammonia

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Feb 4;58(6):1759-1763. doi: 10.1002/anie.201813464. Epub 2019 Jan 11.

Authors

Jin Li^{1

2}, Lingfeng He¹, Xu Liu¹, Xu Cheng^{1

3}, Guigen Li^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Chemistry, Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Xianlin Rd. 163, Nanjing, 210023, China.
² Jiangsu Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Advanced Materials for Salt Chemical Industry, College of Chemical Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Jiangsu Province, Huaian, 223003, China.
³ State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for TCM Quality and Efficacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.

PMID: 30549399
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201813464

Abstract

As a carbon-free and sustainable fuel, ammonia serves as high-energy-density hydrogen-storage material. It is important to develop new reactions able to utilize ammonia as a hydrogen source directly. Herein, we report an electrochemical hydrogenation of alkenes, alkynes, and ketones using ammonia as the hydrogen source and carbon electrodes. A variety of heterocycles and functional groups, including for example sulfide, benzyl, benzyl carbamate, and allyl carbamate were well tolerated. Fast stepwise electron transfer and proton transfer processes were proposed to account for the transformation.

Keywords: ammonia; electrochemistry; hydrogen-storage material; hydrogenation; sustainable chemistry.

Abstract

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