skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Tandem Diels-Alder Reaction of Dimethylfuran and Ethylene and Dehydration to para -Xylene Catalyzed by Zeotypic Lewis Acids

Journal Article · · ChemCatChem
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States). Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI)
  2. Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States); Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States). Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI)

Abstract The zeotypic Lewis acids Sn‐BEA, Zr‐BEA, and Ti‐BEA have recently been reported to catalyze the synthesis of p ‐xylene by dehydrative aromatization of the Diels–Alder product between 2,5‐dimethylfuran and ethylene. Although it has been shown that these Lewis acids can catalyze the dehydration of the Diels–Alder cycloadduct, the tandem scheme precludes decoupling of the two steps needed to infer whether these same catalysts can catalyze the Diels–Alder step. We have employed electronic structure calculations and microkinetic modelling to investigate the Diels–Alder aromatization of 2,5‐dimethylfuran and ethylene to p ‐xylene over the Lewis‐acidic zeotypes Sn‐, Zr‐, and Ti‐BEA. We show that there is only minor catalysis of the Diels–Alder reaction, solely attributable to confinement phenomena varying with the translational freedom allowed to the species inside the zeolite. Microkinetic modelling and sensitivity analysis of the computed rates show that the heterogeneous Diels–Alder pathway does not contribute to the overall rate, and that the homogeneous cycloaddition is rate‐limiting at high acid site concentrations. Only the partially hydrolyzed (“open”) Lewis acid sites are found to be catalytically active, with moderately Brønsted‐acidic silanol groups formed, which catalyze 2,5‐dimethylfuran hydrolysis. Of the Lewis acids tested in this work, Zr‐BEA and Sn‐BEA have similar activities, in agreement with experiment, whereas Ti‐BEA is found to be inactive, suggesting that the recently reported Ti‐BEA activity was likely a result of Brønsted‐acidic defect sites.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001004
OSTI ID:
1469842
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1400826
Journal Information:
ChemCatChem, Vol. 9, Issue 13; Related Information: CCEI partners with the University of Delaware (lead); Brookhaven National Laboratory; California Institute of Technology; Columbia University; University of Delaware; Lehigh University; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Minnesota; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; University of Pennsylvania; Princeton University; Rutgers University; ISSN 1867-3880
Publisher:
ChemPubSoc EuropeCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 25 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (66)

Die Polarität etherischer Lithiumperchlorat-Lösungen journal April 1986
Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation for Biomass Processing: Research Strategies and Goals journal October 2010
A quantum theory of molecular structure and its applications journal July 1991
Biomass at the shale gas crossroads journal January 2014
Bulk chemicals from biomass journal January 2008
A DFT study of the acid-catalyzed conversion of 2,5-dimethylfuran and ethylene to p-xylene journal January 2013
UFF, a full periodic table force field for molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations journal December 1992
The Conservation of Orbital Symmetry journal November 1969
An Enantioselective Inverse-Electron-Demand Imino Diels-Alder Reaction journal January 2014
Diels–Alder cycloaddition of 2-methylfuran and ethylene for renewable toluene journal January 2016
Universal Solvation Model Based on Solute Electron Density and on a Continuum Model of the Solvent Defined by the Bulk Dielectric Constant and Atomic Surface Tensions
  • Marenich, Aleksandr V.; Cramer, Christopher J.; Truhlar, Donald G.
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 113, Issue 18, p. 6378-6396 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp810292n
journal May 2009
Simple Chemical Transformation of Lignocellulosic Biomass into Furans for Fuels and Chemicals journal February 2009
Influence of Reactant Polarity on the Course of the Inverse-Electron-Demand Diels−Alder Reaction. A DFT Study of Regio- and Stereoselectivity, Presence of Lewis Acid Catalyst, and Inclusion of Solvent Effects in the Reaction between Nitroethene and Substituted Ethenes journal August 1999
ONIOM:  A Multilayered Integrated MO + MM Method for Geometry Optimizations and Single Point Energy Predictions. A Test for Diels−Alder Reactions and Pt(P( t -Bu) 3 ) 2 + H 2 Oxidative Addition journal January 1996
Synthesis of terephthalic acid via Diels-Alder reactions with ethylene and oxidized variants of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural journal May 2014
A new ONIOM implementation in Gaussian98. Part I. The calculation of energies, gradients, vibrational frequencies and electric field derivatives journal April 1999
Density functional theory study of the Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction of nitroalkenes with vinyl ethers using aluminum derivatives journal January 2002
Biomass into chemicals: Conversion of sugars to furan derivatives by catalytic processes journal September 2010
The Path Forward for Biofuels and Biomaterials journal January 2006
Cycloaddition of Biomass-Derived Furans for Catalytic Production of Renewable p -Xylene journal April 2012
Lewis acid catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions journal June 1973
Elucidation of Diels–Alder Reaction Network of 2,5-Dimethylfuran and Ethylene on HY Zeolite Catalyst journal December 2012
The M06 suite of density functionals for main group thermochemistry, thermochemical kinetics, noncovalent interactions, excited states, and transition elements: two new functionals and systematic testing of four M06-class functionals and 12 other functionals journal July 2007
Recognition of stereochemical paths by orbital interaction journal February 1971
NBO 6.0 : Natural bond orbital analysis program journal March 2013
Green and sustainable manufacture of chemicals from biomass: state of the art journal January 2014
“Turning Over” Definitions in Catalytic Cycles journal November 2012
Furans as offspring of sugars and polysaccharides and progenitors of a family of remarkable polymers: a review of recent progress journal January 2010
The ONIOM Method and Its Applications journal April 2015
Kinetic Regime Change in the Tandem Dehydrative Aromatization of Furan Diels–Alder Products journal March 2015
Die Erhaltung der Orbitalsymmetrie journal November 1969
Adsorption and reaction properties of SnBEA, ZrBEA and H-BEA for the formation of p-xylene from DMF and ethylene journal January 2016
Reactivity of the carbon–carbon double bond towards nucleophilic additions. A DFT analysis journal July 2004
Quantitative characterization of the global electrophilicity power of common diene/dienophile pairs in Diels–Alder reactions journal May 2002
On the Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Homogeneous Hydrolysis of Furans journal September 2013
Understanding the mechanism of polar Diels–Alder reactions journal January 2009
Active Sites in Sn-Beta for Glucose Isomerization to Fructose and Epimerization to Mannose journal May 2014
Route to Renewable PET: Reaction Pathways and Energetics of Diels–Alder and Dehydrative Aromatization Reactions Between Ethylene and Biomass-Derived Furans Catalyzed by Lewis Acid Molecular Sieves journal September 2015
Why do Electron-Deficient Dienes React Rapidly in Diels?Alder Reactions with Electron-Deficient Ethylenes? A Density Functional Theory Analysis journal December 2004
Production of dimethylfuran for liquid fuels from biomass-derived carbohydrates journal June 2007
Converting carbohydrates to bulk chemicals and fine chemicals over heterogeneous catalysts journal January 2011
Supramolecular Binding Thermodynamics by Dispersion-Corrected Density Functional Theory journal July 2012
Improved Force-Field Parameters for QM/MM Simulations of the Energies of Adsorption for Molecules in Zeolites and a Free Rotor Correction to the Rigid Rotor Harmonic Oscillator Model for Adsorption Enthalpies journal January 2015
Adsorption in zeolites using mechanically embedded ONIOM clusters journal January 2016
Role of Frontier Orbitals in Chemical Reactions journal November 1982
Generalized frontier orbitals of alkenes and dienes. Regioselectivity in Diels-Alder reactions journal June 1973
Conceptual Density Functional Theory journal May 2003
p- Xylene Formation by Dehydrative Aromatization of a Diels–Alder Product in Lewis and Brønsted Acidic Zeolites journal October 2014
Chemical Routes for the Transformation of Biomass into Chemicals journal June 2007
p -Xylene Oxidation to Terephthalic Acid: A Literature Review Oriented toward Process Optimization and Development journal June 2013
A Combined Kinetic−Quantum Mechanical Model for Assessment of Catalytic Cycles:  Application to Cross-Coupling and Heck Reactions journal March 2006
Adsorption of C2−C8 n -Alkanes in Zeolites journal September 2010
How to Conceptualize Catalytic Cycles? The Energetic Span Model journal February 2011
Re-investigation of titanium silicalite by X-ray absorption spectroscopy: Are the novel titanium sites real? journal January 1993
Electrophilicity Index journal June 2006
Direct Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrophobic Aluminum-Free Ti−Beta Zeolite journal January 1998
Lewis acid zeolites for tandem Diels–Alder cycloaddition and dehydration of biomass-derived dimethylfuran and ethylene to renewable p-xylene journal January 2016
Quantitative Characterization of the Local Electrophilicity of Organic Molecules. Understanding the Regioselectivity on Diels−Alder Reactions journal July 2002
Acceleration and selectivity enhancement of Diels-Alder reactions by special and catalytic methods journal March 1993
A density functional theory study for the Diels–Alder reaction between N-acyl-1-aza-1,3-butadienes and vinylamines. Lewis acid catalyst and solvent effects journal May 2002
Catalysis by framework zinc in silica-based molecular sieves journal January 2016
An Enantioselective Inverse-Electron-Demand Imino Diels-Alder Reaction journal January 2014
Frontier molecular orbital theory of cycloaddition reactions journal November 1975
DFT Study of Solvent Effects in Acid-Catalyzed Diels–Alder Cycloadditions of 2,5-Dimethylfuran and Maleic Anhydride journal August 2015
A perspective on the modeling of biomass processing journal January 2012
Ultra-selective cycloaddition of dimethylfuran for renewable p-xylene with H-BEA journal January 2014

Cited By (2)

Formaldehyde–isobutene Prins condensation over MFI-type zeolites journal January 2018
Mechanistic Insight into the [4 + 2] Diels–Alder Cycloaddition over First Row d-Block Cation-Exchanged Faujasites journal November 2018