Heterogeneous ketonic decarboxylation of dodecanoic acid: studying reaction parameters

Perera-Solis, Diego D.; Zholobenko, Vladimir L.; Whiting, Andrew; Greenwell, Hugh Christopher

Abstract

Ketonic decarboxylation has gained significant attention in recent years as a pathway to reduce the oxygen content within biomass-derived oils, and to produce sustainable ketones. The reaction is base catalysed, with MgO an economic, accessible and highly basic heterogeneous catalyst. Here we use MgO to catalyse the ketonic decarboxylation of dodecanoic acid to form 12-tricosanone at moderate temperatures (250 °C, 280 °C and 300 °C) with low catalyst loads of 1% (w/w), 3% (w/w) and 5% (w/w) with respect to the dodecanoic acid, with a reaction time of 1 hour under batch conditions. Three different particle sizes for the MgO were tested (50 nm, 100 nm and 44 μm). Ketone yield was found to increase with increasing reaction temperature, reaching approximately 75% yield for all the samples tested. Temperature was found to be the main control on reaction yield, rather than surface area or particle size.

Citation

Perera-Solis, D. D., Zholobenko, V. L., Whiting, A., & Greenwell, H. C. (2021). Heterogeneous ketonic decarboxylation of dodecanoic acid: studying reaction parameters. RSC Advances, 11(56), https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ra06871g

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Nov 3, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2022
• Journal: RSC Advances
• Electronic ISSN: 2046-2069
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 56
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ra06871g