POV-based molecular catalysts for highly efficient esterification of alcohols with aldehydes as acylating agents

Abstract

The selective oxidative esterification of aldehydes with alcohols to the corresponding esters has been one of the hot spots in scientific research and industrial synthesis. However, the application of precious metal catalytic systems is limited by their complicated synthetic steps and high cost. Thus a highly efficient, green, recyclable selective synthesis method of esters catalyzed by polyoxovanadate (POV)-based molecular catalysts has been developed in this paper. The results show that supramolecular interaction between POV and 1,3-dibenzylimidazolium bromide (Act2Im) can efficiently convert alcohols and aldehydes to the corresponding esters in high yield under much milder conditions. Mechanistic insight is also provided based on the control experiments, single crystal X-ray diffraction and cyclic voltammetry studies.