AsianScientist (Sep. 4, 2014) – Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan have demonstrated a new way to activate compounds important for the production of fuels and biochemicals from natural resources such as petroleum. Their findings have been published in Nature.
Aromatic compounds such as benzene are found widely in petroleum and biomass. Cleavage of the carbon-carbon chemical bonds that are characteristic to the aromatic compounds is a key process in the transformation of the natural resources into useful chemicals.
However, aromatic carbon-carbon bonds are very stable and difficult to break. In the chemical industry, breaking these bonds requires the use of solid catalysts at high temperatures, usually giving rise to a mixture of products.
Scientists have now demonstrated a way to use a metallic complex known trinuclear titanium hydride to accomplish the task at relatively mild temperatures and in a highly selective way. This is the first time that molecular multimetallic hydrides have demonstrated an ability to cleave and activate aromatic compounds such as benzene.
Dr. Hou Zhaomin, who led the research, says, “This work deepens our understanding of carbon-carbon bond cleavage. We were able to achieve the cleavage of benzene at room temperature with a multimetallic polyhydride compound, thanks to the synergistic effects of the multiple metal hydride active sites, offering information on the reaction mechanism at the molecular level.”
The study authors hope that their findings will leads to the design of new catalysts for more efficient and selective production of useful materials from natural resources.
The article can be found at: Hu et al. (2014) Carbon-carbon bond cleavage and rearrangement of benzene by a trinuclear titanium hydride.
——-
Copyright: RIKEN.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
