"Activated Borane": A Porous Borane Cluster Polymer as an Efficient Lewis Acid-Based Catalyst
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | ACS Catalysis |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscatal.3c04011 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.3c04011 |
| Keywords | activated borane; Lewis acid catalyst; heterogeneouscatalysis; deoxygenation reaction; ethanol dehydration; Gutmann-Beckett method; solid-state NMR |
| Description | Borane cluster-based porous covalent networks, named activated borane (ActB), were prepared by cothermolysis of decaborane(14) (nido-B10H14) and selected hydrocarbons (toluene, ActB-Tol; cyclohexane, ActB-cyHx; and n-hexane, ActB-nHx) under anaerobic conditions. These amorphous solid powders exhibit different textural and Lewis acid (LA) properties that vary depending on the nature of the constituent organic linker. For ActB-Tol, its LA strength even approaches that of the commonly used molecular LA, B(C6F5)(3). Most notably, ActBs can act as heterogeneous LA catalysts in hydrosilylation/deoxygenation reactions with various carbonyl substrates as well as in the gas-phase dehydration of ethanol. These studies reveal the potential of ActBs in catalytic applications, showing (a) the possibility for tuning catalytic reaction outcomes (selectivity) in hydrosilylation/deoxygenation reactions by changing the material's composition and (b) the very high activity toward ethanol dehydration that exceeds the commonly used gamma-Al2O3 by achieving a stable conversion of similar to 93% with a selectivity for ethylene production of similar to 78% during a 17 h continuous period on stream at 240 degrees C. |
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