Heterogeneous catalytic dehydrogenative coupling of ethylene glycol and primary alcohols into α-hydroxycarboxylic acids.

Lactic acid and other α-hydroxycarboxylic acids (α-HCAs) play crucial roles in various applications. Synthesizing α-HCAs from biomass platform feedstocks such as ethylene glycol (EG) and primary alcohols is novel and attractive. It was reported that the dehydrogenative cross-coupling of EG and primary alcohols can be achieved via homogeneous catalysis. Herein, we report a heterogeneous catalytic strategy to produce a series of α-HCAs through the same reaction pathway. Impressive catalytic activity and selectivity were achieved using various metals (Ru, Ir, Pt and Pd) supported on the nanodiamond-graphene (ND@G), with Ru exhibiting the best performance. This universally applicable process enables the easy synthesis of gram-scale α-HCAs, providing a straightforward and compelling C-C bond cross-coupling strategy for the utilization of alcohols derived from biomass feedstocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]