Autocatalytic <i>O</i>-Formylation of Alcohols Using CO<sub>2</sub>
Gabriela Gastelú, David Savary, Martin Hulla, Daniel Ortiz, Jorge G. Uranga, Paul J. Dyson
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Global drive away from fossil feedstock requires the development of synthetic procedures to enhance the efficiency of CO 2 capture and utilization processes using renewable starting materials and catalysts. Here, we report an alternative reaction pathway for the O -formylation of alcohols and bio-alcohols, which affords industrially relevant formate esters. Most products, reported herein, derive their carbon atoms exclusively from renewable sources. The reaction is catalyzed by formic acid, which can also be produced directly from CO 2 captured in the reaction. The resulting in situ produced formic acid improves the reaction rate, with each catalyst recycling by simple filtration, product distillation, and reuse of the residual reaction mixture. Hence, CO 2 is used as a C1 building block and simultaneously reduced to formic acid, which in turn autocatalytically promotes the reaction.