Selective transfer hydrogenation (TH) of unsaturated molecules using methanol is challenging as the in situ generated formaldehyde is prone to react with the active methylene (C-methylation) or amine (N-methylation) core...

Transfer hydrogenation of non-polar bond using methanol or ethanol such hydrogen source is of great challenge, and development of efficient catalyst for performing such challenging reactions always an exciting area to explore. Herein, using Co-SAC various azo bonds were very efficiently hydrogenated to the corresponding amines, including commercially used dyes. A number of kinetics study and Hammett studies were to investigate the plausible mechanism and electronic effects. Further, a detailed DFT-calculation was performed to get a deeper insight about the mechanism.