Wang Feng research team of Dalian Institute of chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences has made new progress in the field of heterogeneous acid-base catalysis

It is a challenging task in the field of heterogeneous catalysis to study acid-base catalysis at the nanometer and atomic level The difficulty lies in considering not only the geometric structure and location of the active site, but also the acid-base strength of the active site Recently, the research team of Wang Feng from Dalian Institute of chemical physics has made new progress in the research of heterogeneous acid-base catalysis The results confirm the difficulties in the research of acid-base catalysis In the research of cerium dioxide stabilized Ru clusters / ceria, the research team found that there were Lewis acid-base pairs composed of oxygen vacancy and interface oxygen at the interface of partially oxidized Ru clusters (1nm) and cerium dioxide On this basis, the concept of "interface Lewis acid-base pair" was proposed for the first time（ J Am Chem Soc , 2018 , 140 , 4172 ）。 It was found that Ru clusters / ceria catalyst can catalyze the three molecular reactions of olefins, CO and amines, and generate new C-C, C-N and C = N chemical bonds, so as to synthesize quinozolinone compounds This work has been published online in German Applied Chemistry (angel Chem Int ed., DOI: 10.1002 / anie 201806266) and selected as hot paper by the journal The above study shows that the reaction of alkene, CO and amine first undergoes the amine carbonylation reaction of alkene to produce the intermediate product amide, and then the intermediate product amide removes a molecule of water under the catalysis of CeO 2 Lewis acid site to obtain quinazolinone compounds with the highest separation yield of 99% Because the amine carbonylation of alkenes must be carried out under acidic conditions, and amines as basic molecules are not conducive to the reaction, the formation of intermediate amides is the difficulty of the reaction This study overcomes this difficulty: the activation and dissociation of amines are successfully realized by using Lewis acid-base pairs at the interface of Ru / CeO 2, and Bronsted acid is formed in situ at the interface of oxygen This study provides a new environment-friendly route for the synthesis of quinozolinone compounds, and further expands the application of the concept of "interface Lewis acid-base pair".