Photo-induced solvent-enabled catalyst-/additive-free selective C(α)–C(β) bond cleavage of β-O-4 ketone lignin model compounds at room temperature

Abstract

In this work, an efficient catalyst-/additive-free selective C–C bond cleavage of β-O-4 ketone lignin model compounds was carried out to form the corresponding carboxylic acids and phenyl formates under the irradiation of light at room temperature in an air atmosphere, providing an efficient approach to the selective carbon–carbon bond cleavage reaction without using any photo catalysts. Results of mechanistic control experiments indicated that the in situ generation of radicals of dichloroethane (DCE) in the presence of visible light is essential to realize the selective C(α)–C(β) bond cleavage reaction.