Nature Research, Nature Chemistry, 6(5), p. 544-544, 2013
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1670
Nature Research, Nature Chemistry, 5(5), p. 428-432, 2013
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1609
Nature Research, Nature Chemistry, 6(5), p. 544-544, 2013
DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1664
Full text: Download
The conversion of biomass into fuels and chemical feedstocks is one part of a drive to reduce the world's dependence on crude oil. For transportation fuels in particular, wholesale replacement of a fuel is logistically problematic, not least because of the infrastructure that is already in place. Here, we describe the catalytic defunctionalization of a series of biomass-derived molecules to provide linear alkanes suitable for use as transportation fuels. These biomass-derived molecules contain a variety of functional groups, including olefins, furan rings and carbonyl groups. We describe the removal of these in either a stepwise process or a one-pot process using common reagents and catalysts under mild reaction conditions to provide n-alkanes in good yields and with high selectivities. Our general synthetic approach is applicable to a range of precursors with different carbon content (chain length). This allows the selective generation of linear alkanes with carbon chain lengths between eight and sixteen carbons.