Preparation Of Acetion Intermediate α-hydroxylated Acetal By Electrochemical Method

Acetoin is a widely used food spice.The traditional synthesis method is not friendly to the environment.Therefore,it is very important to develop a green process for aectoin production.In this paper,butanone was used as raw material and the electrochemical method was used to produce α-Hydroxylated Acetal(3,3-dimethoxy-2-butanol),which is an intermediate of acetoin.The electrosynthesis process of acetoin intermediate was optimized in a single compartment electrolytic cell.It was found that the production of 2-butanol could be inhibited by using nickel plate as cathode.Cyclic voltammetry tests showed that methanol was more likely to be electroreduced on the surface of nickel electrode than on the surface of glassy carbon electrode.It was found that too much alkali could reduce the yield and current efficiency.Under the optimized process conditions,the yield of acetoin intermediate could reach 57.39%and the current efficiency could reach 57.75%when the passed charge of 2 F·mol-1.A disc-type electrolytic cell was used as pilot plant for electrosynthesis of acetoin intermediate.It was found that the recovered methanol and butanone as raw materials did not affect the reaction results.It also showed that 2-butanol had no effect on the reaction results in a certain concentration range.Under the current process conditions,the yield of acetoin intermediate was about 39.47%and the current efficiency was about 30.66%.