Graphene-supported RuO2 nanoparticles for efficient aerobic cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction in water.

A cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reaction between tertiary amines and nitroalkanes has been realized under an oxygen atmosphere in water simply by using graphene-supported RuO(2) as the catalyst, which was made from water-soluble graphene with sulfonic groups and RuCl(3)·nH(2)O to form RuO(2)·nH(2)O nanocomposites in situ. In contrast to RuCl(3)·nH(2)O and RuO(2)·nH(2)O, the graphene-supported RuO(2) nanoparticles exhibited higher activity and stability for the aerobic CDC reaction in water.