Biomass can potentially be a suitable renewable resource for the materials and pharmaceutical industries. However, the low solubility of biomass in classical solvents and challenging transformations of polymer-building C-O bonds are two main factors that limit the broad use of these molecules. The long term goal of our research is to establish catalytic systems which can selectively and effectively activate biomass-derived feedstocks at relatively low temperatures. In the presented work, we investigate primary alcohol dehydration as a model reaction to activate challenging C-O bonds. Furthermore, our investigations result in a hypothesis proposing a non-classical catalytic mechanism for this reaction.

Anion catalysis: A novel pathway for C-O activation

249th National Meeting (2015)

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