Dataset on the reductive amination of phenolics with cyclohexylamine over Rh/C and Pd/C: Catalysts characterization and reaction performance

Secondary amines play a very important role in today's chemical industry owing to their extensive applications in agricultural, pharmaceutical, textile, polymer and in personal care fields [1] Unfortunately, most of the amine synthesis processes at the industrial level are fossil-based and imply economic and environmental problems. However, the heterogeneously catalyzed reductive amination of lignin-derived phenolics has been recognized as an efficient and ecofriendly method for the synthesis of primary or higher order amines [2]. In this sense, metal-supported catalysts, specifically palladium, and rhodium-based materials, have demonstrated their effectivity to produce secondary amines [3,4]. Therefore, there is a crescent interest in evaluating their roles within the reaction mechanisms by testing different reaction conditions and phenolics sources. Nevertheless, there is a lack of experimental data allowing to establish a correlation between the nature of the metallic clusters, the operational parameters, and steric effects of alkyl-phenolics with the activity and selectivity to amines. Accordingly, this dataset includes reliable experimental measurements on the use of Pd/C and Rh/C as catalysts for the reductive amination of phenols (RAPhs). A complete set of characterization techniques was applied to inspect the structural and textural properties of these materials which will allow its further correlation with the reaction performance. Therefore, data regarding transmission electron microscopy (TEM), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and specific surface area (BET) with pore size distribution (BJH) are provided here. Furtheremore, experimental data on the catalytic activity (in batch and/or dynamic modes) under different reaction conditions (phenol concentration, amine concentration, hydrogen pressure, temperature and alkyl-substituted phenols) are also included in the dataset. The data provided here could support the understanding on the role of active sites nature (Pd or Rh), the effect of operational parameters and the reactivity order for substituted phenols on the aforementioned reaction. Finally, we have included a sample datasheet which could aid the reader to perform preliminary kinetic analysis using the provided dataset.