One-pot synthesized efficient molybdenum‑niobium-oxide nanocatalyst for selective C-O and C-N coupling reactions at mild conditions

An efficient molybdenum‑niobium-oxide nanomaterial was synthesized by a one-pot hydrothermal method for selective CO (glycerol ketalization) and CN coupling (benzylamine oxidation) reactions. The catalytically favourable properties, such as defective metal sites, truncated surfaces, and uniform metal dispersion in the MoO3-Nb2O5 nanorods, calcined at 500 °C (MoNb OPS-5), were confirmed by Raman, HR-TEM, and STEM-EDX, respectively. Because of improved Lewis/Brønsted acidic strength, the MoNb OPS-5 catalyst showed higher activity in glycerol ketalization and benzylamine oxidation at mild conditions, giving superior selectivity to solketal (97%) and dibenzylimine (99%), respectively. The MoNb OPS-5 catalyst showed high structural stability and considerable good reusability efficacy.