Formic Acid Pursues Efficient Hydrodeoxygenation of Naphthols and Phenolic Derivatives to Arenes

The use of high-pressure hydrogen poses significant challenges, including safety risks, storage problems, and elevated costs. Consequently, developing reductive chemical processes utilizing low-pressure hydrogen is highly appealing for industrial-scale applications. This emphasizes the critical need for sustainable alternatives that offer safer and more accessible reaction conditions. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) are appealing materials due to their capability to generate hydrogen in situ, which can be directly utilized to produce target biofuel precursors, fuels, or fuel additives. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is an efficient approach for transforming lignin and its phenolic derivatives into valuable aromatic chemicals and fuels. Herein, we present an alternative HDO of naphthols and phenols using a commercial heterogeneous catalyst, Pd/C, employing formic acid as LOHC. This paper presents a consistent substrate scope for the HDO of different naphthols and phenols, including pharmaceutically relevant molecules such as amylmetacresol and menthol.