Unlocking the Heterogenization of Catalytic Chlorination: Iron-Based Waste Material as an Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for Allylic Functionalization

Among sustainable alternative solutions, catalysis represents a keystone in chemical processes, offering numerous benefits, including energy and time management, resource management and environmental sustainability. Heterogeneous and homogeneous catalyses are widely used as sustainable alternatives for various processes in diverse fields of the chemical industry ¹. Among these processes, catalytic chlorination represents a convenient way to synthesize allylic and vinylic chloride derivatives ². These derivatives are highly valuable organic compounds that serve as building blocks in the synthesis of more complex atomic arrangements ³. The present work focuses on the valorization of industrial iron-based waste material via catalytic chlorination. First, a characterization study of the waste material was carried out using different advanced techniques. Thereafter, the catalytic activity was investigated, for the first time, using magnetically recoverable iron-based waste material as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst in a selective catalytic allylic chlorination reaction. The optimization of the catalytic reaction was carried out with carvone in the presence of sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) as an eco-friendly, highly stable and freely available chlorine (FAC) agent. The optimized conditions were used to study other functionalized terpenic olefins to obtain high value-added allylic chlorides in good to excellent yields.

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