Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2011, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (10): 1610-1616.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(10)60271-9

• Research papers • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Catalytic Modulation on the Regioselectivity of the Photosensitized Oxidation of α-Pinene with Molecular Oxygen under Sodium Lamp Irradiation

YOU Kuiyi1, YIN Dulin2,a, MAO Liqiu2, LIU Pingle1, LUO He’an1,b   

  1. 1College of Chemical Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan, China; 2College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China
  • Received:2011-06-13 Revised:2011-08-20 Online:2011-09-30 Published:2015-02-12

Abstract: A simple and efficient photosensitized catalytic oxidation approach for α-pinene with molecular oxygen in a temperature-controlled reactor with sparged dioxygen as oxidant and an immersed high-pressure sodium lamp as a green irradiation light source was developed. The effects of various catalysts and reaction parameters on reaction performance were studied. The results indicated that 98% conversion with 84% total selectivity for verbenone and verbenol was obtained when N,N′-dimethylformamide (DMF) was used as a solvent. The product distributions were remarkably affected by the reaction media and DMF was found to especially modulate the regioselectivity of the products. Moreover, a possible photosensitized catalytic oxidation reaction mechanism in DMF is proposed and a clear acid-base synergetic catalysis effect was evident. The relationship between chemical reactivity and selectivity was modeled using density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d) level from optimized molecular configurations.

Key words: photosensitized oxidation, α-pinene, catalytic modulation, molecular oxygen, N,N′-dimethylformamide, density functional theory