Great discovery!

Xiamen University announced that on April 15, the team of Academician Xie Suyuan and Professor Yuan Youzhu of Xiamen University published their research results in the journal Science.
For the first time, C60 was used as an electronic buffer to modify the copper-based catalyst, which opened the way for the preparation of ethyl acetate from syngas.
The atmospheric pressure hydrogenation catalysis of glycol is difficult, and the large-scale experiment of hydrogenating dimethyl oxalate to prepare ethylene glycol under the condition of near normal pressure and below 200 °C has been completed
.

Fullerenes represented by C60 are known as "nano princes"
.
It has important application potential in green energy, biomedicine, catalyst and other fields
.
The combination of fullerenes as electron acceptors (or electron donors) with transition metal catalysts is not a new topic, but it is the first time to combine fullerenes as electron buffers with transition metal catalysts
.

"The core of this technology is the combination of C60 and copper catalyst, which realizes the subversive catalytic performance improvement of dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation to ethylene glycol from high pressure to normal pressure, and injects new vitality into carbon cluster catalysis
.
" Academician Xie Suyuan Introduction
.

Another key point of the results is that under the buffering of C60, the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to prepare ethylene glycol will be greener and safer
.
Different from the currently widely used catalytic technology that requires higher hydrogen pressure, the research results can achieve atmospheric synthesis
.
This means that safety hazards such as hydrogen leakage and explosion can be greatly reduced
.
In addition, atmospheric pressure synthesis can also overcome the problems of many side reactions and easy deactivation of catalysts
.

The development of non-petroleum route synthesis gas to ethylene glycol technology is of great strategic significance
.
"As an important chemical raw material, ethylene glycol can be polymerized with p-xylene-derived terephthalic acid to produce polyester fibers (polyester) and plastics that are widely used in daily life
.
In addition, ethylene glycol can also be used in Automobile antifreeze and industrial solvents are closely related to society and people's livelihood
.
" Professor Yuan Youzhu said
.

This achievement has gone through the joint efforts of three generations of postgraduates and benefited from the sincere cooperation of six research groups
.
"Science" also promoted the results in the same issue, and pointed out that the research results will have an important impact in academia and industry circles, and will become mature
.