ZnO Nanorods as an Efficient and Heterogeneous Catalyst for N-Boc Protection of Amines and Amine Derivatives

An efficient ZnO nano catalyst, which was readily prepared from Zn(CH3CO2)2, 2H2O and PVP by a chemical solution approach has successfully catalyzed N-tertbutoxy carbonylation of amines. The ZnO nanorods were successful and gave promising results for highly active and chemoselective as well as easily recyclable catalyst for the NBoc protection reaction of a wide variety of amines. The catalyst could be easily recycled for five times without noticeable decrease in catalytic activity. The ZnO nanocatalyst was characterized with XRD and SEM. Keywords: ZnO, nano, heterogeneous catalyst, protection, ditertbutyldicarbonate