Visible-light-driven Hydroamination of Alkynes over a New Type of Activated Carbon Immobilized Cu2+ Photocatalyst

A new type of activated carbon immobilized copper(Cu/AC) photocatalyst was prepared by a facile impregnation-adsorption method, where Cu 2+ is chemically adsorbed by abundant oxygenated functional groups on large-surface-area activated carbon surface. Cu/AC exhibited good activity and selectivity to imine for the hydroamination of alkynes at 60 °C under visible light irradiation. The reaction is initialized by the activation of alkynes molecules at Cu active sites with the aid of light as evidenced by the solid-state NMR and laser photolysis measurements and the control experiments. This strategy for catalyst design is potentially extended to the immobilization of other metal homogeneous catalysts for various heterogeneous catalytic systems.