Highly selective transfer hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes by frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) on oxygen-defect-rich Co3O4@NC

Herein, we propose a facile strategy to synthesize oxygen-defect-rich Co3O4@NC porous nanorods derived by in situ pyrolysis of Co-MOF@N, which proves to be frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs). The oxygen-defect-rich Co3O4@NC with FLPs sites (unliganded Co…N) gives 93.4 % selectivity to cinnamyl alcohol at >99.0 % cinnamaldehyde conversion. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the unliganded Co…N FLP sites can effectively activate cinnamaldehyde and isopropanol and reduce the activation energy barrier, thus significantly improving the catalytic performance. The substrate-extending experiments show that Co3O4@NC presents brighter prospects in the selective transfer hydrogenation of a series of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes.