Tracing oxygen-atom relocation from carbohydrates to renewable chemicals for redox-economic and waste-minimized syntheses

Abstract

Small organic molecules bearing oxygen-containing functionalities are key chemical building units in organic chemical manufacturing industries. Biomass-derived carbohydrates are promising feedstocks for synthesizing functionalized organic chemicals with tailored molecular architectures, properties, and functions. The choice and sequence of organic transformations, reagents, synthetic auxiliaries, and other reaction conditions collectively determine the scalability, economic appeal, and environmental sustainability of the synthetic processes. The strategic relocation of oxygen atoms from carbohydrates to renewable chemicals can facilitate the development of redox-economic and waste-minimized synthetic pathways. This review introduces a conceptual framework for tracing the relocation of oxygen atoms from biomolecules to renewable chemicals, providing a quantitative basis for rational synthetic design. The redox economy index (REI), a new green chemistry metric, has been introduced to analyze and evaluate the efficacy of multi-step synthetic pathways of renewable chemicals, where redox steps are used tactically and strategically in constructing their molecular framework.