Sustainable synthesis of novel 3-(2-furyl)acrylic acids and their derivatives from carbohydrate-derived furfurals by chemical catalysis

Abstract

This work reports the renewable synthesis of 3-(2-furyl)acrylic acid and its novel-substituted derivatives, with potential applications as sustainable chemical building units, starting from carbohydrate-derived 5-substituted-2-furaldehydes and malonic acid employing various organocatalysts. Piperidinium acetate as the catalyst afforded good to excellent isolated yields of the acrylic acids under solvent-free conditions. The substituted 3-(2-furyl)acrylic acids were esterified using MeSO<inf>3</inf>H/SiO<inf>2</inf> as a heterogeneous acid catalyst. The 3-(2-furyl)acrylic acids containing acid-sensitive functional groups on the furan ring were esterified by dimethyl carbonate as the sustainable reagent by base-catalyzed transesterification reaction. Moreover, the olefinic group was selectively reduced by catalytic hydrogenation using 5%Pd/C as the catalyst. The catalytic processes were optimized on various reaction parameters, and the synthesized compounds were characterized by FTIR, NMR (1H, 13C), and elemental analysis. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023.