Abstract
Catalytic transfer hydrogenation reactions (CTHs) produce value-added chemicals in the most economical, safe, green, and sustainable way. However, understanding the reaction mechanism and developing stable, selective, and cheap catalysts has been a significant challenge. Herein, we report on the hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde utilizing glycerol as a hydrogen donor and metal-oxides (SnO2, LaFeO3, and LaSnO3) as heterogeneous catalysts. The perovskite types were used because they are easy to synthesize, the metal components are readily available, and they are good alternatives to noble metals. The catalysts were synthesized through the nanocasting (hard-template) method with SiO2 (KIT-6) as a template. The template was synthesized using the soft-template (sol-gel) method resulting in a high surface area of 624 m2/g. Furthermore, catalytic evaluations gave high cinnamaldehyde percentage conversions of up to 99%. Interestingly, these catalysts were also found to catalyze the etherification of glycerol in one pot. Therefore, we propose competitive surface catalytic reactions driven by the transition metal cations as the binding sites for the cinnamaldehyde and the sacrificial glycerol.
Highlights
Sustainability is vital in different reactions as this provides the means to meet human needs using the efficiency of natural products for chemicals and services
It has been proven that acidity affects selectivity in Catalytic transfer hydrogenation reactions (CTHs)
Perovskites were successfully employed in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde to produce hydro-cinnamaldehyde and diglycerol in the same pot
Summary
Sustainability is vital in different reactions as this provides the means to meet human needs using the efficiency of natural products for chemicals and services. Several reactions are performed to increase sustainability, such as converting biomass to fuels using renewable chemicals [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The catalytic transfer hydrogenation reaction (CTH) follows that direction as it uses renewable hydrogen donors such as bioderived sacrificial alcohols [7]. This is a green approach that reduces greenhouse emissions and the pollution of the environment. The same phase of the hydrogen donor and substrate increases the contact time, enhancing reaction efficiency due to the transport phenomena [11]
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