Selective Synthesis of Primary Amines by Reductive Amination of Ketones with Ammonia over Supported Pt catalysts

Supported platinum catalysts are studied for the reductive amination of ketones under ammonia and hydrogen. For a model reaction with 2‐adamantanone, Pt‐loaded MoOx/TiO2 (Pt‐MoOx/TiO2) shows the highest yield of primary amine. The catalyst is effective for the selective transformation of various aliphatic and aromatic ketones to the corresponding primary amines, which demonstrates the first example of the selective synthesis of primary amines by this reaction. The yield of the amine increases with increase in the negative shift of the CO stretching band in the infrared spectra of adsorbed acetone on the catalysts, suggesting that Lewis acid sites on the support material play an important role in this catalytic system.