New Routes to Hydrogen Peroxide: Alternatives for Established Processes?

The reduction of dioxygen to hydrogen peroxide occurs in the presence of copper and palladium catalysts. The first mentioned biomimetic process uses primary alcohols as the reductant, while in the second, in which the key feature is the use of chelating nitrogen ligands, CO fulfills this function (see scheme). Whether these two new methods will become commercial scale and compete with the established anthraquinone method for production remains unanswered.