Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Hydrogenation of Nitriles in a Liquid Phase: Chemical, Mechanistic, and Catalytic Aspects

Primary or alkylated amines are important chemicals and intermedi-ates. N-Alkylamines are used without further transformation as surface-active agents. Aliphatic primary diamines polymerize with aliphatic diacids to give linear polyamides which have conquered a large place in textile and mechanical industry [11. Mono- and polyamines are produced by catalytic hydrogenation of the corresponding nitriles [2]. In particular this pathway to hexamethylenediamine has been made easier since the synthesis of adi-ponitrile by hydrocyanation of butadiene was made possible [3]. The spec-ifications for production of amines are often very drastic from the point of view of purity, in particular for the diamines used in the textile industry. Thus the stress is put on selectivity of the reaction and most of industrial processes have a yield approaching stoichiometry. It exists few reviews on reduction of nitriles [4, 51, the literature dealing with this type of reaction being mostly published in patents [6-91, and practical knowledge is at the state of "know-how" [lo]. Up to now, two types of processes have been used industrially for the