title: Synthesis of acetic acid via methanol hydrocarboxylation with CO2 and H2.
abstract: Acetic acid is an important bulk chemical that is currently produced via methanol carbonylation using fossil based CO. Synthesis of acetic acid from the renewable and cheap CO2 is of great importance, but state of the art routes encounter difficulties, especially in reaction selectivity and activity. Here we report a route to produce acetic acid from CO2, methanol and H2. The reaction can be efficiently catalysed by Ru-Rh bimetallic catalyst using imidazole as the ligand and LiI as the promoter in 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone (DMI) solvent. It is confirmed that methanol is hydrocarboxylated into acetic acid by CO2 and H2, which accounts for the outstanding reaction results. The reaction mechanism is proposed based on the control experiments. The strategy opens a new way for acetic acid production and CO2 transformation, and represents a significant progress in synthetic chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Qingli
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1142-8948
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Buxing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Han