Low-temperature catalytic hydrogenation of bio-based furfural and relevant aldehydes using cesium carbonate and
Jingxuan Long1, Wenfeng Zhao1, Yufei Xu1
1State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Green Pesticide & Agricultural Bioengineering, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide & Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, State-Local Joint Laboratory for Comprehensive Utilization of Biomass, Center for Research & Development of Fine Chemicals, Guizhou University Guiyang Guizhou 550025 China jhzx.msm@gmail.com hli13@gzu.edu.cn +86-(851)-8829-2170 +86-(851)-8829-2171.
Abstract:
Selective hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds is mainly carried out by using high-pressure hydrogen in the presence of a precious or transition metal catalyst. Here, we describe a benign approach to efficiently catalyze the hydrogenation of furfural (FUR) to furfuryl alcohol (FFA) over commercially available cesium carbonate using nontoxic and cheap polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) as hydrogen source. Good to excellent FFA yields (≥90%) could be obtained at 25-80 °C by appropriate control of the catalyst dosage, reaction time, and the hydride amount. FUR-to-FFA hydrogenation was clarified to follow a pseudo-first order kinetics with low apparent activation energy of 20.6 kJ mol-1. Mechanistic insights manifested that PMHS was redistributed to H3SiMe, which acted as the active silane for the hydrogenation reactions. Importantly, this catalytic system was able to selectively reduce a wide range of aromatic aldehydes to the corresponding alcohols in good yields of 81-99% at 25-80 °C in 2-6 h.
Related Concept Videos
02:13Reduction of Alkenes: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Metals like palladium, platinum, and nickel are commonly used in their solid forms — fine powder on an inert surface. As these catalysts remain insoluble in the reaction mixture, they are referred to as heterogeneous catalysts.
The hydrogenation process takes place on the...
02:17Reduction of Alkenes: Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...
02:24Reduction of Alkynes to cis-Alkenes: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Like alkenes, alkynes can be reduced to alkanes in the presence of transition metal catalysts such as Pt, Pd, or Ni. The reaction involves two sequential syn additions of hydrogen via a cis-alkene intermediate.
01:28Reduction of Benzene to Cyclohexane: Catalytic Hydrogenation
02:47Alkynes to Aldehydes and Ketones: Hydroboration-Oxidation
One of the convenient methods for the preparation of aldehydes and ketones is via hydration of alkynes. Hydroboration-oxidation of alkynes is an indirect hydration reaction in which an alkyne is treated with borane followed by oxidation with alkaline peroxide to form an enol that rapidly converts into an aldehyde or a ketone. Terminal alkynes form aldehydes, whereas internal alkynes give ketones as the final product.
02:23Alcohols from Carbonyl Compounds: Reduction
Catalytic hydrogenation is similar to the reduction of an alkene or alkyne by adding H2 across the pi bond in the presence of transition metal catalysts like Raney Ni, Pd–C, Pt, or Ru. Aldehydes and ketones can be reduced by this method, often under mild to moderate heat (25–100°C) and...