Sustainable Production of Benzylamines from Lignin

Abstract

Catalytic conversion of lignin into heteroatom functionalized chemicals is of great importance to bring the biorefinery concept into reality. Herein, a new strategy was designed for direct transformation of lignin β‐O‐4 model compounds into benzylamines and phenols in moderate to excellent yields in the presence of organic amines. The transformation involves dehydrogenation of Cα−OH, hydrogenolysis of the Cβ−O bond and reductive amination in the presence of Pd/C catalyst. Experimental data suggest that the dehydrogenation reaction proceeds over the other two reactions and secondary amines serve as both reducing agents and amine sources in the transformation. Moreover, the concept of “lignin to benzylamines” was demonstrated by a two‐step process. This work represents a first example of synthesis of benzylamines from lignin, thus providing a new opportunity for the sustainable synthesis of benzylamines from renewable biomass, and expanding the products pool of biomass conversion to meet future biorefinery demands.

Synthesis of Dihydroquinoxalinones from Biomass-Derived Keto Acids and o-Phenylenediamines

“…Biomass is acknowledged to be the most abundant renewable carbon resource in the world, which has been employed to produce a wide range of chemicals, fuels, and materials annually. − With the continuous success in the large-scale synthesis of platform molecules from biomass, exploiting green, energy-efficient, and low-cost reaction systems to realize the upgrading of these renewable molecules into higher value-added and useful compounds has always been considered a vital strategy for promoting biomass utilization. Using biomass-derived molecules to synthesize nitrogen-containing compounds has huge potential to enhance the value of biomass utilization because of their important applications in pharmaceuticals, peptides, alkaloids, nucleic acids, etc. − …”