Selective depolymerization of lignin to methyl p-coumarate catalyzed by metal oxides

As the most abundant and renewable aromatic source on the earth, lignin is a good alternative to fossil fuel on producing versatile petrochemicals and biofuel. However, current techniques for lignin conversion generally suffer from some key problems of harsh reaction condition and low selectivity of products. In this study, an efficient process was provided for selective depolymerization of herbaceous lignin to a fine chemical of methyl p-coumarate (MPC) by using cost-effective catalysts of metal oxides. The influences of different metal oxides, reaction temperature, time and solvent on the yield and selectivity of MPC were systematically investigated. The results showed that ZnO exhibited the best catalytic activity, where the yield and selectivity of MPC reached 9.80% and 61.6%, respectively, at the optimized reaction conditions. Furthermore, the results of products distribution and comparative investigation on the raw and unreacted lignin using FT-IR and 2D HSQC NMR spectra demonstrated that the efficient cleavage of the ester linkage in lignin was responsible for this good MPC yield and selectivity. Therefore, this work provides a new insight on producing fine chemicals from the renewable lignin.