Highly Selective Formation of n-Butanol from Ethanol through the Guerbet Process: A Tandem Catalytic Approach

Sumit Chakraborty; Paige E Piszel; Cassandra E Hayes; R Tom Baker; William D Jones

doi:10.1021/jacs.5b10257

Highly Selective Formation of n-Butanol from Ethanol through the Guerbet Process: A Tandem Catalytic Approach

J Am Chem Soc. 2015 Nov 18;137(45):14264-7. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5b10257. Epub 2015 Nov 10.

Authors

Sumit Chakraborty¹, Paige E Piszel¹, Cassandra E Hayes^{1

2}, R Tom Baker², William D Jones¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester , Rochester, New York 14627, United States.
² Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences and Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation, University of Ottawa , Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada.

PMID: 26526779
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b10257

Abstract

A highly selective (>99%) tandem catalytic system for the conversion of ethanol (up to 37%) to n-butanol, through the Guerbet process, has been developed using a bifunctional iridium catalyst coupled with bulky nickel or copper hydroxides. These sterically crowded nickel and copper hydroxides catalyze the key aldol coupling reaction of acetaldehyde to exclusively yield the C4 coupling product, crotonaldehyde. Iridium-mediated dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde has led to the development of an ethanol-to-butanol process operated at a lower temperature.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't