# Sustainable Electrosynthesis of Propylamines through Nitrogen Reduction on a MoS2 Catalyst

## TL;DR

A new electrochemical method uses nitrogen gas and a MoS2 catalyst to produce amines in a single step, offering a sustainable way to make these important chemicals.

## Contribution

A one-step electrochemical process for synthesizing propylamines directly from nitrogen gas using a MoS2 catalyst is introduced.

## Key findings

- Isopropylamine and diisopropylamine are produced from N2 gas using a MoS2-coated electrode.
- Higher acetone concentration increases the yield of C3H9N and C6H15N.
- Diisopropylamine is the main product at optimal applied potentials.

## Abstract

The electrocatalytic utilization of nitrogen compounds
for C–N
coupling chemistry is a promising research area with significant potential
to become a sustainable method for producing organonitrogen molecules.
The most commonly employed C–N coupling reaction is reductive
amination. In this study, we demonstrate an alternative electrochemical
reductive amination reaction using N2 gas as the nitrogen
source, which enables the production of isopropylamine and diisopropylamine
in a single process. For instance, these reactions occur at amorphous
MoS2-coated carbon paper electrodes. This opens the doors
to complex molecule electrosynthesis directly from the gas feed. The
effects of the acetone concentration and applied potential on reaction
yields are investigated. Direct gas feed is demonstrated as a sustainable
electro-organic synthetic technology for organic amines. There is
an increase in the production of C3H9N and C6H15N with increasing acetone concentration. For
0.4 M acetone under N2 (at pH 7.0), isopropylamine and
diisopropylamine yield rates are 3.1 and 6.7 μg h–1 mg–1, respectively, at −0.85 V SCEsat. KCl. The highest faradaic efficiency is obtained
at −0.75 V SCEsat. KCl for C3H9N (0.46%) and C6H15N (2.0%). At more
negative potentials, there is a decrease in the production of both
amines mainly due to the enhanced/competing HER. In all cases, diisopropylamine
is the main organic product. This work provides a new and attractive
strategy for organic amine synthesis via one-step electrochemical
nitrogen reduction.