The present invention relates to novel Ruthenium complexes of formulae A1-A4 and their use, inter alia, for (1) dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols to esters; (2) hydrogenation of esters to alcohols (including hydrogenation of cyclic esters (lactones) or cyclic di-esters (di-lactones), or polyesters); (3) preparing amides from alcohols and amines—(including the preparation of polyamides (e.g., polypeptides) by reacting dialcohols and diamines and/or polymerization of amino alcohols and/or forming cyclic dipeptides from p-aminoalcohols; (4) hydrogenation of amides (including cyclic dipeptides, polypeptides and polyamides) to alcohols and amines; (5) hydrogenation of organic carbonates (including polycarbonates) to alcohols or hydrogenation of carbamates (including polycarbamates) or urea derivatives to alcohols and amines; (6) dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to ketones; (7) amidation of esters (i.e., synthesis of amides from esters and amines); (8) acylation of alcohols using esters; (9) coupling of alcohols with water and a base to form carboxylic acids; and (10) preparation of amino acids or their salts by coupling of amino alcohols with water and a base. The present, invention further relates to the use of certain known Ruthenium complexes for the preparation of amino acids or their salts from amino alcohols.

Providing a process for forming an amine, such as a primary, a secondary or a tertiary amine, via the direct amination of an alcohol using a catalyst comprising at least a palladium compound on a support comprising cerium oxide.

Providing a process for forming an amine, such as a primary, a secondary or a tertiary amine, via the direct amination of an alcohol using a catalyst comprising at least a palladium compound on a support comprising cerium oxide.

Provided is a process for converting a hydrocarbon comprising at least one C—H bond to a nitrogen-functionalized product. The process comprises contacting a hydrocarbon and (i) an oxidizing electrophile comprising (a) a main group element or transition metal in oxidized form and (b) at least one nitrogen-containing ligand, or (ii) an oxidant and a reduced form of an oxidizing electrophile comprising (a) a main group element or transition metal and (b) at least one nitrogen-containing ligand, in a solvent to provide the nitrogen-functionalized product and an electrophile reduction product. Further provided is an oxidizing composition comprising the oxidizing electrophile with at least one nitrogen-containing ligand and a non-oxidizable liquid.

Provided is a process for converting a hydrocarbon comprising at least one C—H bond to a nitrogen-functionalized product. The process comprises contacting a hydrocarbon and (i) an oxidizing electrophile comprising (a) a main group element or transition metal in oxidized form and (b) at least one nitrogen-containing ligand, or (ii) an oxidant and a reduced form of an oxidizing electrophile comprising (a) a main group element or transition metal and (b) at least one nitrogen-containing ligand, in a solvent to provide the nitrogen-functionalized product and an electrophile reduction product. Further provided is an oxidizing composition comprising the oxidizing electrophile with at least one nitrogen-containing ligand and a non-oxidizable liquid.

The present invention provides a method for producing primary amines and secondary amines, the method being characterized by reducing a primary amide or a secondary amide in the presence of a reducing agent and an organic metal halide of a group-2 element.

The present invention provides a method for producing primary amines and secondary amines, the method being characterized by reducing a primary amide or a secondary amide in the presence of a reducing agent and an organic metal halide of a group-2 element.

A preparation method of substituted primary amine is disclosed. The preparation method uses cyanophenyl and a derivative thereof as raw materials, nanoporous palladium as a catalyst, and H.sub.2 as a hydrogen source, and conducts selective hydrogenation to prepare the substituted primary amine. The molar concentration of the cyanophenyl and the derivative thereof in the solvent is 0.01-2 mmol/mL, and the molar ratio of the cyanophenyl to the derivative thereof to the catalyst is 1:0.01-1:0.5. The size of a pore framework of the nanoporous palladium is 1 nm-50 nm. The pressure of the H.sub.2 is 0.1-20.0 MPa. The obtained product has high selectivity; the present invention has mild reaction conditions, does not need any additive, and has simple operation and post-processing and good catalyst reproducibility. After repeatedly used, the catalytic activity of the present invention is not significantly reduced, thereby providing the possibility of realizing industrialization.

A preparation method of substituted primary amine is disclosed. The preparation method uses cyanophenyl and a derivative thereof as raw materials, nanoporous palladium as a catalyst, and H.sub.2 as a hydrogen source, and conducts selective hydrogenation to prepare the substituted primary amine. The molar concentration of the cyanophenyl and the derivative thereof in the solvent is 0.01-2 mmol/mL, and the molar ratio of the cyanophenyl to the derivative thereof to the catalyst is 1:0.01-1:0.5. The size of a pore framework of the nanoporous palladium is 1 nm-50 nm. The pressure of the H.sub.2 is 0.1-20.0 MPa. The obtained product has high selectivity; the present invention has mild reaction conditions, does not need any additive, and has simple operation and post-processing and good catalyst reproducibility. After repeatedly used, the catalytic activity of the present invention is not significantly reduced, thereby providing the possibility of realizing industrialization.

The invention provides process for preparing tin or germanium monochalcogenides of cubic crystalline structure, the process comprises combining a source of tin or germanium and a source of chalcogenide in a reaction vessel in the presence of uncharged liquid primary amine R—NH.sub.2 and a charged form R—NH.sub.3+ associated with a counter anion, wherein R is saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbyl, which may be the same or different in the uncharged and charged forms, and recovering from the reaction mixture an essentially pure cubic phase of the monochalcogenides.