【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】A Tsinghua University research team utilized plasma-droplet fusion technology to achieve the direct nitration of alkanes to form imines

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Recently, the research team led by Yu Quan, an associate researcher at the Institute of Intelligent Instruments and Equipment at Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School, utilized the self-developed sub-atmospheric electrospray ionization technique (SAP-ESI) to successfully integrate gas discharge plasma with interfacial chemistry at the microdroplet level. This approach enabled the efficient activation of alkanes under normal temperature and pressure, which was then used to synthesize imine compounds with high added value. This achievement provides a completely new solution to the challenge of activating inert C-H bonds. This study enables the synthesis of high-value imine compounds using inert alkanes and stable nitrogen as starting materials, under mild conditions without the need for high temperature and pressure or transition metal catalysts. This not only breaks away from the reliance on functional groups in traditional synthetic routes, but also provides a new paradigm for efficient use of resources and green chemistry.