Sustainable and Cost-Effective Protocol for Cascade Oxidative Condensation of Furfural with Aliphatic Alcohols

Abstract

The oxidative condensation of furfural with aliphatic alcohols catalyzed by the supported CoxOy–N catalysts is developed in the presence of molecular oxygen. For the oxidative condensation process of furfural, n-propanol and dioxygen, a 75.1% conversion of furfural and 92.8% selectivity of 3-(furan-2-yl-)-2-methylacryaldehyde was obtained when the CoxOy–N@K-10 and cesium carbonate was employed as catalytic system. Moreover, the reaction conditions were optimized and the oxidative condensation of furfural with different aliphatic alcohols was also investigated. The synergistic effect between the CoxOy–N@K-10 and basic additive was considered to be responsible for this cascade process. Furthermore, a possible reaction mechanism is proposed for oxidative condensation of furfural–n-propanol–O2 (FPO) system.