From aromatics to aromatic amines: new breakthroughs in the use of bulk chemical raw materials

As an important Chemical Raw Material, aniline is widely used in dyes, medicines, pesticides, explosives, rubber vulcanization accelerators and other fields. At present, the global demand for aniline is as high as 5 million tons. As an important precursor of caprolactam and nylon, cyclohexanone has an annual global demand of 5 million tons. Traditional industrial processes require different processes to prepare these two important Chemical Products separately, and the reaction conditions are harsh.

Carbon-carbon bonds are the most basic chemical bonds of organic compounds. Their high bond energy has long restricted the conversion of alkyl aromatics. The activation of CC bonds has been widely concerned by chemists and is one of the most challenging research fields. The National Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines and Biomimetic Drugs, the Jiao Ning team, used their “nitrogenation reaction” strategy to innovatively realize a new way to introduce alkyl aromatic hydrocarbons into nitrogen and oxygen atoms through carbon-carbon bond cleavage, while solving traditional nitrification. / Reduction method The selectivity of electron-rich aniline and the synthesis of electron-deficient aniline. For the first time, they have completed a new reaction for the conversion of cyclohexylbenzene to aniline and cyclohexanone, which is expected to provide a new process for the high value-added conversion and utilization of hydrocarbons in petroleum products. This method can also be applied to complex molecules and drugs. The synthesis and modification provide a simple and efficient synthetic basis for the discovery of drug lead compounds and the creation of new drugs.

Relevant research results have recently been published in the internationally renowned academic journal Nature Chemistry. This research work has deepened the understanding of the activation and transformation of inert carbon-carbon bonds, and provided new ideas for the utilization of aromatic hydrocarbon raw materials. It is expected to provide new preparations for aromatic amines and cyclohexanone, which are important basic raw materials in the fields of medicine and materials. Strategy, new process.

The work was funded by projects such as the “973” project and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.