Novel Effect of Zinc Nitrate/Vanadyl Oxalate for Selective Catalytic Oxidation of α-Hydroxy Esters to α-Keto Esters with Molecular Oxygen: An In Situ ATR-IR Study

Abstract

Selective oxidation of α-hydroxy esters is one of the most important methods to prepare high value-added α-keto esters. An efficient catalytic system consisting of Zn(NO3)2/VOC2O4 is reported for catalytic oxidation of α-hydroxy esters with molecular oxygen. Up to 99% conversion of methyl DL-mandelate or methyl lactate could be facilely obtained with high selectivity for its corresponding α-keto ester under mild reaction conditions. Zn(NO3)2 exhibited higher catalytic activity in combination with VOC2O4 compared with Fe(NO3)3 and different nitric oxidative gases were detected by situ attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy. UV-vis and ATR-IR results indicated that coordination complex formed in Zn(NO3)2 in CH3CN solution was quite different from Fe(NO3)3; it is proposed that the charge-transfer from Zn2+ to coordinated nitrate groups might account for the generation of different nitric oxidative gases. The XPS result indicate that nitric oxidative gas derived from the interaction of Zn(NO3)2 with VOC2O4 could be in favor of oxidizing VOC2O4 to generate active vanadium (V) species. It might account for different catalytic activity of Zn(NO3)2 or Fe(NO3)3 combined with VOC2O4. This work contributes to further development of efficient aerobic oxidation under mild reaction conditions.

Application ofin situATR-IR spectroscopy for the synthesis of bisphenol F: optimization, mechanistic and kinetics studies

“…As a non-destructive and noninvasive detecting technology, ATR-IR spectroscopy can be employed to monitor the variation in material concentration in situ without contamination, especially under rigorous experimental conditions. Thus, it is used widely to study surface characteristics, [19][20][21][22][23][24] and gain insight into reaction processes and mechanisms [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] in chemical engineering, environmental engineering and pharmaceutical research. For example, the mechanism for the catalytic ozonation of clobric acid under ambient conditions was explored systematically with ATR-IR spectroscopy.…”