Hydrogen Gas-Mediated Deoxydehydration/Hydrogenation of Sugar Acids: Catalytic Conversion of Glucarates to Adipates.

The development of a system for the operationally simple, scalable conversion of polyhydroxylated biomass into industrially relevant feedstock chemicals is described. This system includes a bimetallic Pd/Re catalyst in combination with hydrogen gas as a terminal reductant and enables the high-yielding reduction of sugar acids. This procedure has been applied to the synthesis of adipate esters, precursors for the production of Nylon-6,6, in excellent yield from biomass-derived sources.

Electrochemical functionalization of 1,3-diisopropylbenzene.

The anodic oxidation of 1,3-diisopropylbenzene in methanol gave exclusively the desired dimethoxy-functionalized product in excellent yield when potassium bromate was utilized as supporting electrolyte. Similar electrochemical conversions in other alcoholic solvents were not successful based on the low conductivity of the mixture. The introduction of other alcohols could then be realized when the dimethoxy derivative was converted under S(N)1 conditions in alcohols used as solvent.