title: Directional synthesis of ethylbenzene through catalytic transformation of lignin.
abstract: Transformation of lignin to ethylbenzene can provide an important bulk raw material for the petrochemical industry. This work explored the production of ethylbenzene from lignin through the directional catalytic depolymerization of lignin into the aromatic monomers followed by the selective alkylation of the aromatic monomers. For the first step, the aromatics selectivity of benzene derived from the catalytic depolymerization of lignin reached about 90.2 C-mol% over the composite catalyst of Re-Y/HZSM-5 (25). For the alkylation of the aromatic monomers in the second step, the highest selectivity of ethylbenzene was about 72.3 C-mol% over the HZSM-5 (25) catalyst. The reaction pathway for the transformation of lignin to ethylbenzene was also addressed. Present transformation potentially provides a useful approach for the production of the basic petrochemical material and development of high-end chemicals utilizing lignin as the abundant natural aromatic resource.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Physics, Anhui Key Laboratory of Biomass Clean Energy, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China.
authors.forename: Minghui
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Peiwen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Peiyan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.forename: Shumei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Lifeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.forename: Tiejun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Quanxin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001555:Benzene Derivatives / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D018533:Biomass; D002384:Catalysis; D008031:Lignin / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001555:Benzene Derivatives; D011108:Polymers; D008031:Lignin; C004912:ethylbenzene
keywords: Alkylation; Aromatic monomer; Depolymerization; Ethylbenzene; Lignin