Production of Benzenecarboxylic Acids from Geting Bituminous Coal through Oxidation with NaOCl Enhanced by Pretreatment with H₂O₂

Abstract

Benzenecarboxylic acids (BCAs) are valuable chemicals with a wide range of applications, which can be produced from coals via mild oxidation. Herein, an effective approach for producing BCAs from Geting bituminous coal (GBC) is reported through oxidation with NaOCl aqueous solution enhanced by pretreatment with H2O2 aqueous solution. Both GBC and pretreated GBC (PTGBC) undergo oxidation with NaOCl at 30 °C for 24 h. The results show that pretreatment with H2O2 enhance the yields of non‐chlorine BCAs and meanwhile suppress producing chloro‐substituted BCAs from GBC. BCAs produced from oxidation of PTGBC have a high total yield of 21.0 wt %, among which benzenedicarboxylic acids, benzenetricarboxylic acids, and benzenetetracarboxylic acids are predominant. The distributions of BCAs reveal that GBC has more cata‐condensed aromatics and peri‐condensed aromatics than polyaryls moieties. The possible mechanisms for enhancing BCAs production by pretreatment with H2O2 are discussed.