Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development

Francesco Ferretti

Ralf Jackstell

Sarim Dastgir

Matthias Beller

Muhammad Sharif

Louie Fan

Douglas W Stephan

Muhammed Sharif

Disclosed are methods or processes of synthesizing building blocks and feedstocks for producing a broader range of polymers, including renewable polymers, from renewable resources such as CO. In a process of manufacturing a renewable feedstock for polymer production, a COderived lactone is prepared and processed to form the renewable feedstock. The process may include alkoxycarbonylation of the COderived lactone to form a diester and hydrogenation of the diester.

Synthesis of building blocks and feedstocks for manufacturing renewable polymers

The metal-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of a lactone is a method of alkoxycarbonylating a &#x3b4;-lactone, specifically 3-ethylidene-6-vinyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-one. The method includes combining the &#x3b4;-lactone with an alcohol in an organic solvent in the presence of a catalyst system that includes palladium or a salt thereof to form a reaction mixture, which is heated to 110-130&#xb0; C. at a pressure of 20-50 bar for between 3-5 hours under flow of carbon monoxide gas. The product of the reaction is a substituted 2-octendioate diester. The alcohol may be methyl alcohol, n-butyl alcohol, 2-ethylhexanol, isobutyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, or phenol. The solvent may be toluene, acetonitrile, or tetrahydrofuran. The method may include adding an acid to the reaction mixture, which may be dilute (about 5 mol %) sulfuric or p-toluenesulfonic acid. The catalyst system may also include a phosphine ligand.

Metal-catalyzed alkoxycarbonylation of a lactone

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Doha, Qatar

Francesco Ferretti