Sustainable olefin production

Synopsis: The research project will focus on identifying suitable catalysts for a specific chemical transformation, termed "aldol-fission reaction" to produce olefins from carbonyl compounds. A systematic investigation is planned to determine which catalyst properties promote the fission pathway relative to the conventional aldol condensation pathway. The first choice of catalysts are porous aluminosilicates (zeolites and related porous solids), followed by mineral acids. 

Olefins are key intermediates in the synthesis of important chemicals and also serve as monomers. Present methods to produce olefins depend on chain length and structure. Steam cracking, fluid catalytic cracking, dehydrogenation of alkanes, and olefin metathesis can be used, or the Wittig synthesis. These methods rely on fossil resources or produce stoichiometric byproducts. The pathway that will be investigated in this project relies on carbonyl compounds, which can be obtained from biomass. 

Preliminary data show that aldol reactions can be tuned to result in fission of the aldol intermediate to give an olefin and a carboxylic acid, rather than to dehydrate to give the unsaturated carbonyl compound. This research will build on this prior knowledge and expand the catalyst scope to identify the characteristics needed to catalyze the desired reaction.