Acceptorless dehydrogenation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids by self-supported NHC-Ru single-site catalysts.

[Display omitted] • Acceptorless dehydrogenation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids with pure hydrogen liberation. • Highly efficient and recyclable solid self-supported catalysts with single-sited catalytic centers. • Up to 99% yield and selectivity with broad substrates and sensitive functional group tolerance for both aryl and alkyl alcohols. • Under air atmosphere and at low catalyst loadings. The acceptorless dehydrogenation of diverse aromatic and aliphatic primary alcohols to corresponding carboxylic acids has been accomplished by self-supported NHC-Ru single-site catalysts under mild reaction conditions. Besides broad substrates with excellent activity, selectivity and good tolerance to sensitive functional groups, the solid single-site catalyst could be recovered and reused for more than 20 runs without deactivation. Remarkably, up to 1.8 × 104 turnover numbers could be achieved by this newly developed sustainable protocol in gram scale at low catalyst loading, highlighting its potential in industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]