Selective catalytic two-step process for ethylene glycol from carbon monoxide

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 12075
• Main Authors: Dong, Kaiwu, Elangovan, Saravanakumar, Sang, Rui, Spannenberg, Anke, Jackstell, Ralf, Junge, Kathrin, Li, Yuehui, Beller, Matthias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.07.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 639/638/263/406/77; 639/638/403/934; Alcohol; Carbon monoxide; Catalysis; Chemicals; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogenation; Industrial production; multidisciplinary; Nitric oxide; Oxidation; Polyesters; Polyethylene terephthalate; Raw materials; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Trends
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12075

Upgrading C1 chemicals (for example, CO, CO/H 2 , MeOH and CO 2 ) with C–C bond formation is essential for the synthesis of bulk chemicals. In general, these industrially important processes (for example, Fischer Tropsch) proceed at drastic reaction conditions (>250 °C; high pressure) and suffer from low selectivity, which makes high capital investment necessary and requires additional purifications. Here, a different strategy for the preparation of ethylene glycol (EG) via initial oxidative coupling and subsequent reduction is presented. Separating coupling and reduction steps allows for a completely selective formation of EG (99%) from CO. This two-step catalytic procedure makes use of a Pd-catalysed oxycarbonylation of amines to oxamides at room temperature (RT) and subsequent Ru- or Fe-catalysed hydrogenation to EG. Notably, in the first step the required amines can be efficiently reused. The presented stepwise oxamide-mediated coupling provides the basis for a new strategy for selective upgrading of C1 chemicals. Conversion of one-carbon feedstocks to more complex structures is vital for the production of bulk chemicals. Here, the authors report a highly selective method for the conversion of carbon monoxide to ethylene glycol by means of an oxamide intermediate.