Efficient reductive depolymerization of hardwood and softwood lignins with Brookhart’s iridium(III) catalyst and hydrosilanes

Louis Monsigny (1) , Elias Feghali (1) , Jean Claude Berthet (1) , Thibault Cantat (1)

1 LCMCE - Laboratoire de Chimie Moléculaire et de Catalyse pour l'Energie (ex LCCEF)

Efficient catalytic reduction of lignin model molecules and reductive depolymerization of softwood and hardwood lignins is presented with the iridium based Brookhart's catalyst and hydrosilanes R$_3$SiH as reductant. This catalyst displays increased stability and selectivity in comparison to the B(C$_6$F$_5$)$_3$/hydrosilane system and it enables a convergent reductive depolymerization of wood lignins to isolable mono-aromatics.

Domains: Material chemistry; Organic chemistry; Catalysis

Louis Monsigny, Elias Feghali, Jean Claude Berthet, Thibault Cantat. Efficient reductive depolymerization of hardwood and softwood lignins with Brookhart’s iridium(III) catalyst and hydrosilanes. Green Chemistry, In press, 20, pp.1981-1986. ⟨10.1039/C7GC03743K⟩. ⟨cea-01760087⟩