The ongoing energy transition and rise of alternative renewable feedstock necessitate the development of flexible catalytic systems able to efficiently transform and/or defunctionalize oxygen-rich product streams, originating for example from biomass.

In a recent publication in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Gilles Moos (PhD Student in Dr. Bordet’s group), Dr. Alexis Bordet (group leader 'Multifunctional Catalytic Systems') and MPI CEC Director Prof. Walter Leitner together with Dr. Meike Emondts (DWI Leibniz-Institute for Interactive Materials and Institute of Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University) describe a newly developed  catalytic system composed of Rhodium nanoparticles immobilized on a triphenylphosphonium-based supported ionic liquid phase (SILP). They showed that this catalyst is active for the hydrodeoxygenation of a wide range of aromatic ketones without the addition of a strong acid catalyst. Interestingly, the catalyst’s selectivity is temperature-controlled, and can thus be easily switched to produce either hydrogenated or hydrodeoxygenated products.

Their finding opens the way towards efficient synthesis of two classes of high-value cyclohexane derivatives (alkyl cyclohexanes and hydroxyl containing cyclohexanes). Cyclohexane derivatives are essential for various applications (transportation sector, liquid crystals, pharmaceuticals), and the reported approach allowing their versatile production from widely available substrates – derived from lignin for example – is particularly attractive.

Original publication: Moos, G., Emondts, M., Bordet, A., Leitner, W. (2020). Selective Hydrogenation and Hydrodeoxygenation of Aromatic Ketones to Cyclohexane Derivatives Using a Rh@SILP Catalyst, Angewandte Chemie International Edition. <link https: doi.org anie.201916385>

doi.org/10.1002/anie.201916385