Reduction of Aldehydes with Formic acid in Ethanol using Immobilized Iridium Nanoparticles on a Triazine-phosphanimine Polymeric Organic Support

A novel triazine-phosphanimine polymeric organic support (TPA) was synthesized successfully by a controllable one-pot method using melamine (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine) and trichlorophosphane (PCl₃). The TPA substrate is a material incorporating P and N atoms which can coordinate with metals as a pincer ligand to stabilize them, providing an efficient heterogeneous support to prepare recyclable transition metal catalyst systems. In this study, TPA was used as support to immobilize iridium nanoparticles in the range of ~8 nm on its surface, resulting in the generation of a novel iridium nanocatalyst system (INP-TPA-POP). This catalyst system was characterized using different microscopic and spectroscopic techniques such as FT-IR, TEM, XPS, XRD, SEM, EDX, elemental analysis, ICP and BET analysis. The INP-TPA-POP nanocatalyst exhibited remarkable activity in reduction of aldehydes to alcohols using formic acids as reducing agent in ethanol as solvent.