Metal-free polymers have the potential to replace toxic metal catalysts in hydrocarbon oxidation reactions, according to an international team of chemists.
Yong Wang, at the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany, and colleagues replaced some of the carbon atoms in graphitic carbon nitride with boron. The resulting polymeric material was better than previous biomimetic homogeneous oxidation catalysts at oxidising substituted aromatics.
Oxidations of sp3 hybridised C-H bonds are challenging because the oxidised products are more reactive than the starting materials and so they tend to over-oxidise. This was not a problem for Wang’s catalyst, which was highly selective at forming ketones or aldehydes.
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