Microwave-Mediated Site-Selective Heating of Spherical-Carbon-Bead-Supported Platinum for the Continuous, Efficient Catalytic Dehydrogenative Aromatization of Saturated Cyclic Hydrocarbons

A microwave (MW)-assisted method for the continuous production of hydrogen from methylcyclohexane using platinum on spherical carbon beads has been developed, and its application to the efficient dehydrogenative aromatization of fully saturated cyclic alkanes, including piperidines as representative heterocycles, has been studied. Effective dehydrogenation was achieved by the construction of a highly intense energy field, which acted as a reactive site, on the irradiation of the carbon beads (CB) support. The reaction could be carried out with only 10-W single-frequency MWs. The catalyst system could be used continuously for at least 12 h without any loss of catalyst activity. Dehydrogenative aromatization could also be catalyzed and simple cyclohexane derivatives, as well as piperidine derivatives as representative N-heterocyclic alkanes, were tested.