Mo and V transition metal complexes as catalysts for biomass valorisation using organic-solvent sober processes

In the quest of sustainable production of chemicals, clean, safe and simple processes are among the most interesting in terms of sustainability. For this, the 12 Green Chemistry principles deserves to be studied in order to fulfill these greener requirements.

Renewable substrates are interesting sources in contrast with depleting fossil resources. Biomass is thus the perfect renewable ore to be considered with attention. Indeed, many platform molecules can be obtained from this short-carbon-cycle resource. The diversity of starting substrates is huge and deserves to be deeply considered.

Energy- and matter-sober processes have thus to be discovered. Catalysis is an interesting asset to diminish energy consumption. Several catalysts are efficient to transform molecules but most of processes need the use of organic solvent. For this, organic solvent-free processes are solvent-sober protocols diminishing some hazards and increasing safety aspects.

This work is in straight line with the previously presented requirements. We will present recent results concerning the use of [MoO2(SAP)]2 and and [VO(SAP)2O] transition metal complexes surrounded by a tridentate ONO tridentate ligand SAP (salicylideneaminophenolato) and their use as catalysts to valorize biomass under organic-solvent free processes. These catalytic materials will be presented and catalytic results with several terpenes (limonene, linalool, caryophyllene and myrcene for example ) will be proposed showing the activity of such catalysts. Improvements in terms of Green processes compared to the literature will be emphasized.