Electro-Carboxylation of Furfural By CO2 in γ-Valerolactone
Authors: Boissou Florent , Baranton Stève , De Oliveira-Vigier Karine , Coutanceau Christophe 
Published: December 2020

The continuous rise of global warming and depletion of fossil fuel resources has led to the development of new ways of valorization of non petro-sourced chemicals. In this objective, it is important to develop electrochemical valorization processes of CO2, a greenhouse gas, for the synthesis of valuable molecules. When the CO2 electroreduction is performed in aqueous media, the competitive HER will decrease the energetic efficiency and the rapid deactivation of reaction intermediates will lead to side products such as CO, formic acid, oxalic acid and small chain hydrocarbons [1]. To circumvent these issues and create value added chemicals, reductive electro-carboxylation reactions can be performed in polar aprotic solvents (DMF, DMSO, acetonitrile or NMP) in the presence of tetraalkylammonim bromide or chloride as electrolytes [2].

In this work, we focused on non-aqueous bio-sourced solvent, the γ-valerolactone (GVL), to perform a carboxylation reaction of bio-sourced molecules like furfural by electroreduction of CO2. The reductive electro-carboxylation of furfural was studied at a Pt/C electrode was studied in a bio-sourced GVL with tributylmethylammonium chloride (TBMACl) as electrolyte. The solvent behavior in the CO2 reduction potential range was studied by in situ FTIRS measurements which indicated that GVL reacted at the electrode in the absence of furfural and/or of CO2, while the presence of furfural and/or of CO2 made the solvent much less reactive. The electrochemical study showed that the CO2 electroreduction started at from the high cathodic potential of −0.8 V vs SCE (saturated calomel electrode) and the coupling of electrochemistry with in situ FTIRS demonstrated that it reacted with furfural.

The reductive electro-carboxylation was then performed in an electrolysis cell. The cell voltage was maintained at 2.0 V (corresponding to a cathode potential of -1.9 V vs. SCE) for 24 h. In absence of furfural, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (GC–MS) analyses revealed the formation of oxalic acid (coupling reaction of CO2) as main reaction product. In the presence of furfural in the reaction medium, a new carboxylated specie, 2-furyl(hydroxy)acetic acid, was identified as the main reaction product. 1H NMR and LC-MS analyses further confirmed the formation of this compound, demonstrating the potentialities of bio-sourced solvents for reduction electro-carboxylation of a bio-sourced molecule by reduction of CO2[3].

[1] Y. Hori, Electrochemical CO2 reduction on metal electrodes, in: C. Vayenas, R. White, M. Gamboa-Aldeco (Eds.), Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry, 42, Springer, NewYork 2008, pp. 89–189

[2] R. Matthesses, J. Fransaer, K. Binnemans, D.E. De Vos, Electrocarboxylation: towards sustainable and efficient synthesis of valuable carboxylic acids, Beilstein J. Org.Chem. 10 (2004) 2484–2500.

[3] Florent Boissou, S. Baranton, M. Tarighi, K. De Oliveira Vigier, C. Coutanceau, The potency of γ-valerolactone as bio-sourced polar aprotic organic medium for the electrocarboxlation of furfural by CO2. J. Electroanal. Chem. 848 (2019) 113257