title: Production of Diethyl Terephthalate from Biomass-Derived Muconic Acid.
abstract: We report a cascade synthetic route to directly obtain diethyl terephthalate, a replacement for terephthalic acid, from biomass-derived muconic acid, ethanol, and ethylene. The process involves two steps: First, a substituted cyclohexene system is built through esterification and Diels-Alder reaction; then, a dehydrogenation reaction provides diethyl terephthalate. The key esterification reaction leads to improved solubility and modulates the electronic properties of muconic acid, thus promoting the Diels-Alder reaction with ethylene. With silicotungstic acid as the catalyst, nearly 100% conversion of muconic acid was achieved, and the cycloadducts were formed with more than 99.0% selectivity. The palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenation reaction preferentially occurs under neutral or mildly basic conditions. The total yield of diethyl terephthalate reached 80.6% based on the amount of muconic acid used in the two-step synthetic process.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (PR China).
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn. lufang@dicp.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (PR China).
authors.forename: Jiazhi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Weiqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (PR China).
authors.forename: Qianqian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (PR China).
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023 (PR China) http://www.orgcatal.dicp.ac.cn. xujie@dicp.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
keywords: biomass; catalysis; cycloaddition; muconic acid; terephthalic acid