Manganese Oxide / Silica catalysed Decarboxylative Ketonization of Aliphatic Carboxylic Acids in a Continuous Flow Reactor

ChemSusChem. 2024 Apr 18:e202400094. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202400094. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe sustainable synthesis of long carbon chain molecules from carbon dioxide, water and electricity relies on the development of waste-free, highly selective C-C bond forming reactions. An example for such a power-to-chemicals process is the industrial-scale fermentation for the production of hexanoic acid. Herein, we describe how this product is transformed into 6-undecanone via decarboxylative ketonization using a heterogeneous manganese oxide / silica catalyst. The reaction reaches full conversion with near-complete selectivity when carried out in a continuous flow reactor, requires no solvent or carrier gas, and releases carbon dioxide and water as the only by-products. The reactor was operated for several weeks with no loss of reactivity, producing 7 kg of 6-undecanone from 10 g of catalyst and achieving a productivity of 1.135 kg per litre of reactor volume per hour. 6-Undecanone and other long-chain ketones accessible this way can be hydrogenated to industrially meaningful alkanes, or converted into valuable fatty acids via a hydrogenation / elimination / isomerizing hydrocarboxylation sequence.PMID:38635873 | DOI:10.1002/cssc.202400094

Source: ChemSusChem - April 18, 2024 Category: Chemistry Authors: Jonas Felix Goebel Florian Belitz Daniel Sowa Prendes Yannik Haver Patrick Diehl Martin Muhler Lukas J Goossen Source Type: research