A Benign Synthesis Route to Terephthalic Acid via Two-Step Electrochemical Oxidation of P-xylene
Date
2024-05-31
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of The Electrochemical Society
Abstract
Terephthalic acid is conventionally synthesized through the AMOCO process under harsh conditions, making milder electrosynthesis routes desirable. Electrooxidation of p-xylene has been demonstrated but the degree of oxidation is limited, resulting in low terephthalic acid yields. Here, we demonstrate a process with two electrochemical steps enabling the complete oxidation of p-xylene into terephthalic acid. The first electrochemical step achieves C-H activation of p-xylene using electrochemically generated bromine as a mediator, while the second electrochemical step does alcohol oxidation of 1,4-benzenedimethanol into terephthalate on NiOOH. The divided cell in the first step simultaneously generates acid and base that are utilized subsequently, negating the need of external acid and base addition and thus offering a cost competitive synthesis route. The competing bromide oxidation in the second step is suppressed by using constant voltage electrolysis at 0.50 V, where an optimal yield of terephthalic acid of 81% is achieved.
Description
This article was originally published in Journal of The Electrochemical Society. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ad4a0b. © 2024 The Author(s). Published on behalf of The Electrochemical Society by IOP Publishing Limited. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. [DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/ad4a0b]
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Citation
Ding, Haoran, Marat Orazov, Nicholas Oliveira, and Yushan Yan. “A Benign Synthesis Route to Terephthalic Acid via Two-Step Electrochemical Oxidation of P-Xylene.” Journal of The Electrochemical Society 171, no. 5 (May 1, 2024): 053510. https://doi.org/10.1149/1945-7111/ad4a0b.