Gold nanoparticle-decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as a highly reactive catalyst for the selective α,β-dehydrogenation of N-methyl-4-piperidone

chemistry Medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry Nano- and molecular-scale electronics Nano-biomaterials and bioscience Nanomagnetics Nanomaterials, thin films and nanointerfaces Nanomedicine Nanometrology and nanomechanics Nano-optics Nanopatterning, self-assembly and nanofabrication Nanostructures for energy and sensing applications Natural products chemistry Organo main group chemistry Other nanotechnology (unclassified) Other organic chemistry (unclassified) Photochemistry and photovoltaics Physical organic chemistry Supramolecular chemistry Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) supported on reduced graphene oxide (AuNPs/rGO) were demonstrated to be a highly reactive catalyst for the selective α, β-oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of N-methyl-4-piperidone as a model substrate for β-N-substituted saturated ketones. This substrate was chosen due to the significant pharmaceutical relevance of the reaction product 1-methyl-2,3-dihydropyridin-4(1H)-one which is very expensive (>1000 €/g), in contrast to the inexpensive starting material (0.15 €/g). Various synthesis methods were employed to prepare AuNPs supported on different carbon materials, including reduced graphene oxide (rGO), activated carbon (AC), and carbon black (CB), to investigate the influence of the carbon support on the catalyst performance. As stabilizing agents for the AuNPs citrate (Cit) and the polyoxometallate [SiW9O34]10– (SiW9) were used. Among the tested catalysts, the rGO-supported ones, Au-Cit/rGO, Au-SiW₉/rGO, Au@SiW₉/rGO and exhibited superior catalytic activity for the selective oxidation reaction. These findings offer valuable insights for the design of highly active Au-based catalysts for the dehydrogenation of β-N-substituted saturated ketones and other fine chemical applications.

Supported gold nanoparticles; Oxidative dehydrogenation; Reduced graphene oxide; β-N-substituted ketones | Format: DOCX | Size: 1.4 MB | Download | When a peer-reviewed version of this preprint is available, this information will be updated in the information box above. If no peer-reviewed version is available, please cite this preprint using the following information: Kenyim, B. F.; Tzalis, M.; Kaul, M.; Oestreich, R.; Limon, A.; Pecheu Nkepdep, C.; Janiak, C. Beilstein Arch. 2025, 202547. doi:10.3762/bxiv.2025.47.v1 Citation data can be downloaded as file using the "Download" button or used for copy/paste from the text window below. Citation data in RIS format can be imported by all major citation management software, including EndNote, ProCite, RefWorks, and Zotero. © 2025 Kenyim et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut. This is an open access work licensed under the terms of the Beilstein-Institut Open Access License Agreement (https://www.beilstein-archives.org/xiv/terms), which is identical to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). The reuse of material under this license requires that the author(s), source and license are credited. Third-party material in this work could be subject to other licenses (typically indicated in the credit line), and in this case, users are required to obtain permission from the license holder to reuse the material.