29509-35-1Relevant articles and documents
Multiple Mechanisms Mapped in Aryl Alkyl Ether Cleavage via Aqueous Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation over Skeletal Nickel
Hegg, Eric L.,Jackson, James E.,Klinger, Grace E.,Saffron, Christopher M.,Zhou, Yuting
, p. 4037 - 4050 (2020/03/10)
We present here detailed mechanistic studies of electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) in aqueous solution over skeletal nickel cathodes to probe the various paths of reductive catalytic C-O bond cleavage among functionalized aryl ethers relevant to energy science. Heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenolysis of aryl ethers is important both in hydrodeoxygenation of fossil fuels and in upgrading of lignin from biomass. The presence or absence of simple functionalities such as carbonyl, hydroxyl, methyl, or methoxyl groups is known to cause dramatic shifts in reactivity and cleavage selectivity between sp3 C-O and sp2 C-O bonds. Specifically, reported hydrogenolysis studies with Ni and other catalysts have hinted at different cleavage mechanisms for the C-O ether bonds in α-keto and α-hydroxy β-O-4 type aryl ether linkages of lignin. Our new rate, selectivity, and isotopic labeling results from ECH reactions confirm that these aryl ethers undergo C-O cleavage via distinct paths. For the simple 2-phenoxy-1-phenylethane or its alcohol congener, 2-phenoxy-1-phenylethanol, the benzylic site is activated via Ni C-H insertion, followed by beta elimination of the phenoxide leaving group. But in the case of the ketone, 2-phenoxyacetophenone, the polarized carbonyl πsystem apparently binds directly with the electron rich Ni cathode surface without breaking the aromaticity of the neighboring phenyl ring, leading to rapid cleavage. Substituent steric and electronic perturbations across a broad range of β-O-4 type ethers create a hierarchy of cleavage rates that supports these mechanistic ideas while offering guidance to allow rational design of the catalytic method. On the basis of the new insights, the usage of cosolvent acetone is shown to enable control of product selectivity.
Cleavage of the lignin β-O-4 ether bond: Via a dehydroxylation-hydrogenation strategy over a NiMo sulfide catalyst
Zhang, Chaofeng,Lu, Jianmin,Zhang, Xiaochen,Macarthur, Katherine,Heggen, Marc,Li, Hongji,Wang, Feng
, p. 6545 - 6555 (2018/06/06)
The efficient cleavage of lignin β-O-4 ether bonds to produce aromatics is a challenging and attractive topic. Recently a growing number of studies have revealed that the initial oxidation of CαHOH to CαO can decrease the β-O-4 bond dissociation energy (BDE) from 274.0 kJ mol-1 to 227.8 kJ mol-1, and thus the β-O-4 bond is more readily cleaved in the subsequent transfer hydrogenation, or acidolysis. Here we show that the first reaction step, except in the above-mentioned pre-oxidation methods, can be a Cα-OH bond dehydroxylation to form a radical intermediate on the acid-redox site of a NiMo sulfide catalyst. The formation of a Cα radical greatly decreases the Cβ-OPh BDE from 274.0 kJ mol-1 to 66.9 kJ mol-1 thereby facilitating its cleavage to styrene, phenols and ethers with H2 and an alcohol solvent. This is supported by control experiments using several reaction intermediates as reactants, analysis of product generation and by radical trap with TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy) as well as by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The dehydroxylation-hydrogenation reaction is conducted under non-oxidative conditions, which are beneficial for stabilizing phenol products.
