Study on one-step catalytic amination of oleyl alcohol to unsaturated tertiary amine

The synthesis of unsaturated tertiary amine by the amination of oleyl alcohol and dimethylamine under atmospheric pressure over Cu–Ni catalysts supported on CaCO₃ was studied. The yield of tertiary amine and the retention rate of the unsaturated bond can reach 95.4 and 93.3 %, respectively. The yields of tertiary amine over different Cu/Ni ratios catalysts were close to each other, which meant that Cu/Ni ratios had no obvious influence on the production of tertiary amine, while the retention rate of the unsaturated bond over the catalyst containing only Cu was higher than the catalysts containing Cu–Ni. The major effect of the Cu element was dehydrogenation, and the ability of the hydrogenation was weak. The ability of the Ni element to break the carbon–carbon bonds and hydrogenation was strong. Therefore, the performance of the Cu catalyst was better than the conventional Cu–Ni-based catalyst for the retention of the unsaturated bond in long-chain R of the tertiary amine.