A Sustainable and Versatile Cellulose-based CO Surrogate for Carbonylative Reactions

The highly toxic and flammable nature of CO lead to high handling demand for its use and storage, undoubtedly constricting its further academic exploration for carbonylative reactions in laboratory. Although many CO surrogates have been developed and applied in carbonylative reactions instead of CO gas, exploration of more versatile CO surrogates for diverse carbonylations is still highly desirable. Here we report a cellulose-based CO surrogate (cellulose-CO), which prepared from cheap and abundant cellulose through a simple and green process. The very mild and efficient CO release makes this reagent a highly competitive candidate for providing CO in carbonylation. This surrogate is compatible with a wide variety of functional groups in various carbonylative reactions due to the excellent compatibility of cellulose-CO. Moreover, the cellulose-CO exhibits excellent chemical stability which can be stored exposed to air for 12 months, making this CO surrogate a robust and general reagent in CO chemistry. A novel and practical strategy is developed to prepare a new CO surrogate (cellulose-CO) derived from naturally abundant cellulose and established an efficient protocol for its application in carbonylative reactions. The cellulose-CO exhibits excellent reactivity with a very mild CO-release conditions, and also shows excellent compatibility and toleration in a variety of carbonylative systems. Notably, the cellulose-CO shows excellent chemical stability which can be stored on the bench exposed to air for at least 12 months, showing great practicability and conveniences. With these properties, this newly designed cellulose-CO can be used as a stable, cheap, green and efficient CO surrogate in CO chemistry.image