Effective dehydrogenative oxidation of amines and alcohols via radical mechanism by nano-porous polyaniline catalysis

It has been known that doped polyaniline emeraldine salt (PANI-ES) synthesized by self-stabilized dispersion polymerization (SSDP) method has a nano-porous structure. This nano-porous conjugate polymer with a high surface area is effectively used for the dehydrogenative oxidation reaction of benzylamine and benzylalcohol with or without oxygen. The catalytic activity can be controlled by the various oxidation states of PANI. After oxidation, the resulting structure of PANI-ES is transformed into a pernigraniline base (PB). This result suggests the involvement of radical mechanism by the reversible redox properties of conjugated polyaniline.