One-pot synthesis of benzylaniline from nitrobenzene and benzaldehyde over Au-Ru/TiO_2 catalyst

A series of bimetallic catalyst Au-Ru/TiO2 were prepared by the deposition-precipitation method.The as-prepared catalysts were used in the one-pot synthesis of benzylaniline from nitrobenzene and benaldehyde,and characterized by XRD and SEM.The effect of Ru loadings on hydrogenation performance of Au-Ru/TiO2 catalysts was investigated.The results showed that Ru and Au had the synergistic effect on hydrogenation preformance of the catalysts.The catalyst with 1.5% Ru loading exhibited the highest activity and selectivity to N-benzylaniline.The conversion of nitrobenzene of 100% and the selectivity to N-benzylaniline of 88.2% were attained under the optimum synthesis conditions as follows:catalyst dosage 15% of the mass of nitrobenzene,toluene as the solvent,hydrogen pressure 1.1 MPa and reaction temperature 80 ℃.