Activated charcoal grafted with phenyl imidazole groups for Knoevenagel condensation of furfural with malononitrile

Minrui Xu (1) , Heng Zhang (1) , Frédéric Guégan (1) , Gilles Frapper (1) , Matthieu Corbet (2) , Philippe Marion (2) , Frédéric Richard (1) , Jean-Marc Clacens (1)

1 IC2MP [Poitiers] - Institut de chimie des milieux et matériaux de Poitiers [UMR 7285]
2 Solvay Recherches & Innovation Centre de Lyon

Commercial activated charcoal Darco® KB-G with large specific area (1345 m 2 g −1) was found to be an excellent carbonaceous support for chemical surface functionalization. Its covalent grafting with phenyl imidazole groups via diazonium chemistry was carried out under mild conditions (25°C, P atm) by reacting 4-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)ani-line with Darco in the presence of isopentyle nitrite as diazotization initiator. The success of the surface function-alization was evidenced by experimental XPS spectra and DFT calculations. The functionalized solid Darco-0.5IM with tertiary amine functions was well characterized and its catalytic activity was evaluated in the Knoevenagel condensation of furfural with malononitrile.

Domaines: Chimie organique; Catalyse

Minrui Xu, Heng Zhang, Frédéric Guégan, Gilles Frapper, Matthieu Corbet, et al.. Activated charcoal grafted with phenyl imidazole groups for Knoevenagel condensation of furfural with malononitrile. Catalysis Communications, 2020, 147, pp.106151. ⟨10.1016/j.catcom.2020.106151⟩. ⟨hal-02927803⟩