Oxidative ammonolysis of 3,4-dimethylpyridine on the vanadium oxide catalysts

Oxidative ammonolysis of 3,4-dimethylpyridine on an individual vanadium oxide (V2O5) catalyst and binary vanadium oxide catalysts, modified by additions of SnO2 and ZrO2, has been studied. A connection between..acidity of the methyl groups of the substrate in the gaseous phase and in the chemosorbed state and the sequence of their transformation into a cyano group has been established. It has been shown that nucleophilicity of vanadyl oxygen, calculated by the Density Functional Theory method, increases with V2O5 modification by SnO2 and ZrO2 additions. Herewith, an increasing yield of 3-methyl-4-cyanopyridine and imide of pyridine-3,4-dicarboxylic acid was observed. A proposed mechanism of the imide of pyridine-3,4-dicarboxylic acid formation has been discussed