Alkoxycarbonylation of Unsaturated Substrates of Plant Origin in the Presence of Palladium Catalysts as a Route to Synthesize Ester Products

Abstract

The synthesis of esters by the alkoxycarbonylation of unsaturated substrates of plant origin opens up the possibility of switching to alternative raw materials and provides a solution to a number of problems facing the chemical industry: resource saving, waste minimization, and increasing the environmental safety and efficiency of the processes being implemented. However, to date, only the production of methyl methacrylate, which includes ethylene methoxycarbonylation as one of the stages, has been implemented in industry. The aim of this review is to systematize and analyze the data published since 2010 in the field of ester synthesis by the alkoxycarbonylation of plant substrates under mild conditions. It has been found that, over the indicated period, the alkoxycarbonylation of pentenoic and undecenoic acids, oleic, linoleic, and erucic acids or their esters, and terpene compounds—citronellic acid and β-myrcene—has been implemented. It has been shown that high yields of linear products and selectivities for them under mild conditions have been provided mostly by using homogeneous palladium–diphosphine catalysts. The results of these studies open up broad prospects for the implementation of processes that are new for industry, namely, the alkoxycarbonylation of substrates of plant origin for synthesizing chemical products of high priority, primarily polymers.