Cytosine Palladium Complex Supported on Ordered Mesoporous Silica as Highly Efficient and Reusable Nanocatalyst for One-Pot Oxidative Esterification of Aldehydes

The synthesis of esters is one of the most fundamental and significant subjects in organic chemistry and chemical industry because they are used in high-value products such as cosmetics, biofuel, pharmaceuticals, surfactants, and food ingredients. In this study, an efficient, economic, sustainable, and green protocol for oxidative esterification reaction has been developed. A one-pot direct transformation of aliphatic, aromatic, and unsaturated aldehydes into esters in the presence of oxygen has been carried out over mesoporous organosilica-supported palladium nanocatalyst (Pd-Cyt@SBA-15) under ambient conditions. Pd-Cyt@SBA-15 efficiently catalyzed selectively large-scale conversion of aldehydes into esters in high yields and large turnover numbers (TON = 98,000). Pd-Cyt@SBA-15 nanocatalyst demonstrated excellent reusability and stability and could be recycled up to ten times without loss of significant reactivity. ICP-AES analysis showed that no leaching of active palladium species occurred during the recycling process of the heterogeneous Pd-Cyt@SBA-15 nanocatalyst.

Controlled Metal–Support Interactions in Au/CeO2–Mg(OH)2 Catalysts Activating the Direct Oxidative Esterification of Methacrolein with Methanol to Methyl Methacrylate

The strong metal–support interaction (SMSI) between the three components in Au/CeO2–Mg(OH)2 can be controlled by the relative composition of CeO2 and Mg(OH)2 and by the calcination temperature for the direct oxidative esterification of methacrolein (MACR) with methanol to methyl methacrylate (MMA). The composition ratio of CeO2 and Mg(OH)2 in the catalyst affects the catalytic performance dramatically. An Au/CeO2 catalyst without Mg(OH)2 esterified MACR to a hemiacetal species without MMA production, which confirmed that Mg(OH)2 is a prerequisite for successful oxidative esterification. When Au/Mg(OH)2 was used without CeO2, the direct oxidative esterification of MACR was successful and produced MMA, the desired product. However, the MMA selectivity was much lower (72.5%) than that with Au/CeO2–Mg(OH)2 catalysts, which have an MMA selectivity of 93.9–99.8%, depending on the relative composition of CeO2 and Mg(OH)2. In addition, depending on the calcination temperature, the crystallinity of the CeO2–Mg(OH)2 and the surface acidity/basicity can be remarkably changed. Consequently, the Au-nanoparticle-supported catalysts exhibited different MACR conversions and MMA selectivities. The catalytic behavior can be explained by the different metal–support interactions between the three components depending on the composition ratio of CeO2 and Mg(OH)2 and the calcination temperature. These differences were evidenced by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and CO2 temperature-programmed desorption. The present study provides new insights into the design of SMSI-induced supported metal catalysts for the development of multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts.

Co-N-Si/AC Catalyst for Aerobic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohols to Esters under Mild Conditions

A stable, earth-abundant, reusable cobalt-based heterogeneous catalyst is developed for the oxidative esterification of alcohols under ambient conditions, featuring broad substrate scope, providing good to excellent product yields. This protocol enables easy recyclability of the catalyst, measured up to five times without significant loss of efficiency. The active sites of Co-N-Si/AC are proposed to be Co-N species.

Study on the Synthesis of 6-Hydroxyhexyl 5-(Hydroxymethyl) Furan-2-Carboxylate from 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and Alkanediols

Nowadays, due to the fact that the term ‘sustainable development’ has caught everyone’s attention, chemists have been researching substances which obtainable via synthesizing biocompounds. Recently, scientists found out that 5-hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF), which can be synthesized via dehydration reaction of common biocompounds like polysaccharides, has a great potential of forming novel derivatives to utilize in the biopolymer manufacturing field. HMF oxidative esterification is one of the notable reactions of which the outcome seems promising and applicable. In this research, the esterification of HMF and hexane-1,6-diol took place directly in DMSO or TEA solvent using Ru/C, Co3O4-N@C as catalysts, base K3PO4; with oxygen 1 bar as an oxidant. LC-MS/MS analysis was used to detect the presence of the ester products; however, due to the low conversion and selectivity, the content of desired product is not enough to isolate and confirm its structure.

Zn Promoted Mg-Al Mixed Oxides-Supported Gold Nanoclusters for Direct Oxidative Esterification of Aldehyde to Ester

The synthesis of ester compounds is one of the most important chemical processes. In this work, Zn-Mg-Al mixed oxides with different Zn2+/Mg2+ molar ratios were prepared via co-precipitation method and supported gold nanoclusters to study the direct oxidative esterification of aldehyde and alcohol in the presence of molecular oxygen. Various characterization techniques such as N2-physical adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and CO2 temperature programmed desorption (TPD) were utilized to analyze the structural and electronic properties. Based on the results, the presence of small amounts of Zn2+ ions (~5 wt.%) provoked a remarkable modification of the binary Mg-Al system, which enhanced the interaction between gold with the support and reduced the particle size of gold. For oxidative esterification reaction, the Au25/Zn0.05MgAl-400 catalyst showed the best performance, with the highest turnover frequency (TOF) of 1933 h−1. The active center was believed to be located at the interface between metallic gold with the support, where basic sites contribute a lot to transformation of the substrate.