Nickel Phosphide Nanoalloy Catalyst for Selective Deoxygenation of Sulfoxides to Sulfides under an Ambient H2 Pressure
S. Fujita, S. Yamaguchi, S. Yamazoe, J. Yamasaki, T. Mizugakia, T. Mitsudome Org. Biomol. Chem., accepted.
Exploring novel catalysis by less common, metal-non-metal nanoalloys is of great interest in organic synthesis. We herein report a titanium-dioxide-supported nickel phosphide nanoalloy (nano-Ni2P/TiO2) that exhibits high catalytic activity for the deoxygenation of sulfoxides. nano-Ni2P/TiO2 deoxygenated various sulfoxides to sulfides under 1 bar of H2, representing the first nonnoble metal catalyst for sulfoxide deoxygenation under ambient H2 pressure. Spectroscopic analyses revealed that this high activity is due to cooperative catalysis by nano-Ni2P and TiO2.