Abstract

A coordination polymer Zr-CIA was developed and employed as a stable and effective catalyst for the alkylation of amines with alcohols or benzyl amines. The Zr-CIA as a new coordination polymer was prepared from 1-(carboxymethyl)-1H-indole-3-carboxylic acid and ZrCl₄ through a simple and effective solvothermal method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), nitrogen adsorption-desorption and X-ray photoelectronic spectroscopy (XPS). The polymer exhibited not only high catalytic activity for the alkylation reaction, but also good reusability in more than five cycles. Meanwhile, mechanistic investigations were carried out to study these reactions.

Keywords: Alkylation, amines, TEM, XRD, XPS, dehydrogenation.