The utilization of CO2 and non-edible renewable feedstock for the production of chemicals and materials is a must for a sustainable Chemical Industry. Recently, our Group has investigated the conversion of C6 polyols into 5-HMF and the selective aerobic oxidation of the latter into several products, either fine chemicals or monomers for polymers, such as FDCA. (Fig. 1) Figure 1. From C6 to 5-HMF and added value products. There is a great interest in the utilization of bio-sourced FDCA as monomer for polymers (PolyEtheneFuroates-PEF), supplanting terephtalic acid, derived from fossil-carbon. The route depicted in Fig. 1 has a bottleneck in the cost of 5-HMF. Very recently, furoic acid, formed from furfural, a C5 polyol that is not fully exploited, has been used as substrate for the synthesis of FDCA, via a carboxylation carried out using Cs2CO3 and CO2. (Fig. 2, low part) Our interest in the carboxylation of organic substrates and biosourced molecules has pushed us to discover cheaper promoters than Cs for the conversion of furoic acid into FDCA. Figure 2. From C6 and C5 to FDCA. We have investigated the role of several metals (s-p Groups and Transition Metals) in different reaction conditions (temperature, presence and absence of CO2) in order to gather information about a possible reaction mechanism, not disclosed so far, and the identify of the carboxylating agent. In this paper we shall discuss the chemistry of such interesting system and the role of metal carbonates and CO2.

Direct carboxylation of C5 acid to C6 diacids with inorganic carbonates: is CO2 necessary?

2019 Spring National Meeting

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