A simple approach to reduce the environmental impact of olefinmetathesis reactions: a green and renewable solvent compared to solvent-free reactions

Abstract

Two widely-studied olefin metathesis reactions, the cross-metathesis of allyl benzene with cis-1,4-diacetoxy-2-butene and the ring closing metathesis of diethyl diallylmalonate, were studied under environmentally more benign reaction conditions. All studied catalysts allowed these reactions to be performed under bulk conditions, thus avoiding large amounts of solvent waste. Moreover, methyl decanoate, a fatty acid-derived, and thus renewable and non-toxic, solvent, was shown to be an environmentally friendly alternative solvent to the usually applied dichloromethane. Most interestingly, only the reactions performed under bulk conditions allowed a 25-fold catalyst loading reduction, thus offering the “greenest” alternative of the investigated reaction conditions.