Hydrogenation of Carboxylic Acids, Esters, and Related Compounds over Heterogeneous Catalysts: A Step toward Sustainable and Carbon-Neutral Processes

The catalytic hydrogenation of esters and carboxylic acids represents a fundamental and important class of organic transformations, which is widely applied in energy, environmental, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. Due to the low reactivity of the carbonyl group in carboxylic acids and esters, this type of reaction is, however, rather challenging. Hence, specifically active catalysts are required to achieve a satisfactory yield. Nevertheless, in recent years, remarkable progress has been made on the development of catalysts for this type of reaction, especially heterogeneous catalysts, which are generally dominating in industry. Here in this review, we discuss the recent breakthroughs as well as milestone achievements for the hydrogenation of industrially important carboxylic acids and esters utilizing heterogeneous catalysts. In addition, related catalytic hydrogenations that are considered of importance for the development of cleaner energy technologies and a circular chemical industry will be discussed in detail. Special attention is paid to the insights into the structure-activity relationship, which will help the readers to develop rational design strategies for the synthesis of more efficient heterogeneous catalysts.

High-effective approach from amino acid esters to chiral amino alcohols over Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst and its catalytic reaction mechanism

Developing the high-efficient and green synthetic method for chiral amino alcohols is an intriguing target. We have developed the Mg(2+)-doped Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst for hydrogenation of L-phenylalanine methyl ester to chiral L-phenylalaninol without racemization. The effect of different L-phenylalanine esters on this title reaction was studied, verifying that Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 is an excellent catalyst for the hydrogenation of amino acid esters to chiral amino alcohols. DFT calculation was used to study the adsorption of substrate on the catalyst, and showed that the substrate adsorbs on the surface active sites mainly by amino group (-NH2) absorbed on Al2O3, and carbonyl (C=O) and alkoxy (RO-) group oxygen absorbed on the boundary of Cu and Al2O3. This catalytic hydrogenation undergoes the formation of a hemiacetal intermediate and the cleavage of the C-O bond (rate-determining step) by reacting with dissociated H to obtain amino aldehyde and methanol ad-species. The former is further hydrogenated to amino alcohols, and the latter desorbs from the catalyst surface.

A highly effective and stable CuZn0.3MgxAlOycatalyst for the manufacture of chirall-phenylalaninol: the role of Mg and its hydrotalcite-like precursor

A highly effective and stable CuZn_0.3Mg_0.1AlO_ycatalyst derived from a Cu-rich hydrotalcite-like precursor was prepared for the catalytic hydrogenation ofl-phenylalanine methyl ester tol-phenylalaninol with ~100% ee selectivity.

Influence of the component interaction over Cu/ZrO2 catalysts induced with fractionated precipitation method on the catalytic performance for methanol steam reforming

A series of binary Cu/ZrO₂ catalysts by choosing different composition ratios and different precipitation sequences have been prepared for the production of hydrogen by steam reforming of methanol (SRM).