Visible-light-driven Hydroamination of Alkynes over a New Type of Activated Carbon Immobilized Cu^(2+)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℃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.