Conversion Of Carbohydrate Biomass To Y-Valerolactone By Using Water-Soluble Iridium Complexes In Acidic Aqueous

With the diminishing fossil fuel remains, research on the production of renewable liquid fuels from biomass resources has been a worldwide focus, y-valerolactone is among the renewable energy platform molecules. It can be directly used as fuel additive, and also can be converted into alkane fuels. One of the most effective potential methods for the manufacture of GVL is hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA), which can be obtained by hydrolysis of carbohydrate biomass. LA can be converted into GVL with molecular hydrogen or formic acid with either heterogeneous or homogeneous catalysts.Based on former researcher’s result, we try on iridium catalysts and prove that half-sandwich iridium complexes could be used to convert LA into y-GVL in excellent yield under mild temperatures and pressures. We observe a high TONs at120℃and lOatm H2, And the catalyst shows high activity in the generation of y-GVLfrom aqueous mixture of LA and FA supplied excess FA or extra H2supply under mildest conditions yet reported. Furthermore, via a simple phase separation this water-soluble homogeneous catalyst can be reused for the selective reduction of low concentrated LA aqueous solution with molecular hydrogen or FA and without any additives, which could be used for the generation of y-GVL from various biomass-derived carbohydrates, indicating its superiority in practical application for industrial production of y-GVL...