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Acceptorless Alcohol Dehydrogenation Catalysed by Pd/C
Author(s) -
Nicolau Guillermo,
Tarantino Giulia,
Hammond Ceri
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201901313
Subject(s) - dehydrogenation , chemistry , selectivity , catalysis , acceptor , alcohol , molecule , photochemistry , organic chemistry , combinatorial chemistry , physics , condensed matter physics
Abstract Although the selective oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds is a critical reaction, it is often plagued by several challenges related to sustainability. Here, the continuous, acceptorless dehydrogenation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds over heterogeneous catalysts was demonstrated, in the absence of oxidants, bases or acceptor molecules. In addition to improving selectivity and atom efficiency, the absence of an acceptor resulted in the co‐production of molecular H 2 , a clean energy source, and permitted dehydrogenation to proceed at >98 % selectivity at turnover frequency values amongst the highest in the literature. Moreover, excellent durability was observed during continuous operation over 48 h, reaching space‐time yields of 0.683 g (product) mL −1 h −1 , better than the state of the art by over two orders of magnitude. Alongside these breakthroughs, the basic kinetic parameters of the reaction were also determined, allowing some of the elementary reaction steps to be identified.