Ambient-pressure alkoxycarbonylation for sustainable synthesis of ester

Zhang, Bin, Yuan, Haiyang, Liu, Ye, Deng, Zijie, Douthwaite, Mark, Dummer, Nicholas F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0946-6304, Lewis, Richard J., Liu, Xingwu, Luan, Sen, Dong, Minghua, Wang, Tianjiao, Xu, Qingling, Zhao, Zhijuan, Liu, Huizhen, Han, Buxing and Hutchings, Graham J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8885-1560 2024. Ambient-pressure alkoxycarbonylation for sustainable synthesis of ester. Nature Communications 15 (1) , 7837. 10.1038/s41467-024-52163-2

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Abstract

Alkoxycarbonylation reactions are common in the chemical industry, yet process sustainability is limited by the inefficient utilization of CO. In this study, we address this issue and demonstrate that significant improvements can be achieved by adopting a heterogeneously catalyzed process, using a Ru/NbOx catalyst. The Ru/NbOx catalyst enables the direct synthesis of methyl propionate, a key industrial commodity, with over 98% selectivity from CO, ethylene and methanol, without any ligands or acid/base promoters. Under ambient CO pressure, a high CO utilization efficiency (336 mmolestermolCO−1h−1) is achieved. Mechanistic investigations reveal that CO undergoes a methoxycarbonyl (COOCH3) intermediate pathway, attacking the terminal carbon atom of alkene and yielding linear esters. The origins of prevailing linear regioselectivity in esters are revealed. The infrared spectroscopic feature of the key COOCH3 species is observed at 1750 cm−1 (C=O vibration) both experimentally and computationally. The broad substrate applicability of Ru/NbOx catalyst for ester production is demonstrated. This process offers a sustainable and efficient approach with high CO utilization and atom economy for the synthesis of esters.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	Nature Research
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	9 September 2024
Date of Acceptance:	26 August 2024
Last Modified:	09 Sep 2024 10:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171935

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