ON THE SURFACE CHEMISTRY OF OXIDES IN THE REACTIONS OF NITRO COMPOUNDS

Selective removal of oxygen from organic oxygenates is an important issue in fine chemistry. The ways presently used to achieve this goal are very awkward from the environmental point of view. However, a heterogeneous catalytic reduction meets the standards. The activities of a series of oxides, mostly of first row transition elements, have been compared and a pattern of the catalytic activity in the periodic table of elements has been established. Mechanistic studies revealed the reason for the different behaviour of the aliphatic and the aromatic nitro compounds.