Heterogeneous catalytic dehydrogenative coupling of ethylene glycol and primary alcohols into α-hydroxycarboxylic acids

• Published in: Science China. Chemistry Vol. 66; no. 9; pp. 2583 - 2589
• Main Authors: Tian, Shuheng, Li, Jiarui, Peng, Xingjie, Xu, Yao, Wang, Maoling, Tang, Haoyi, Zhou, Wu, Wang, Meng, Ma, Ding
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Science China Press 01-09-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acids; Alcohol; Alcohols; Aldehydes; Biomass; Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Communications; Cross coupling; Dehydrogenation; Diamonds; Ethylene glycol; Graphene; Iridium; Lactic acid; Nanostructure; Palladium; Raw materials; Ruthenium; Science; heterogeneous catalysis; α-hydroxycarboxylic acids; dehydrogenative cross-coupling
• ISSN: 1674-7291; 1869-1870
• DOI: 10.1007/s11426-023-1734-x

Lactic acid and other α-hydroxycarboxylic acids (α-HCAs) play crucial roles in various applications. Synthesizing α-HCAs from biomass platform feedstocks such as ethylene glycol (EG) and primary alcohols is novel and attractive. It was reported that the dehydrogenative cross-coupling of EG and primary alcohols can be achieved
via
homogeneous catalysis. Herein, we report a heterogeneous catalytic strategy to produce a series of α-HCAs through the same reaction pathway. Impressive catalytic activity and selectivity were achieved using various metals (Ru, Ir, Pt and Pd) supported on the nanodiamond-graphene (ND@G), with Ru exhibiting the best performance. This universally applicable process enables the easy synthesis of gram-scale α-HCAs, providing a straightforward and compelling C-C bond cross-coupling strategy for the utilization of alcohols derived from biomass feedstocks.