Extraordinary catalytic performance of lycopene in the conversion of amino acid like aspartic acid to aspartic thioamide using catalytic transfer sulfurization process

This study outlines a straightforward one-step catalytic transfer sulfurization method that can be utilized to synthesis aspartic thioamide with the help of lycopene, which is extracted from fresh tomatoes using a solvent extraction method. Aspartic thioamide particles are thoroughly characterized by Raman, FESEM, TEM, EDS, FT-IR and powder XRD spectroscopic analysis. The lycopene acted as a catalyst for sulfurization of aspartic acid in H₂S atmosphere. When lycopene and H₂S are heated to 100 °C for 45 min, lycopene alone exhibits 38.5 % catalytic activity in the conversion of aspartic acid to aspartic thioamide, and 52.56 % with H₂S. Moreover, in a variety of polar solvents, lycopene-100 is stable and demonstrates high catalytic efficiency in the breakdown of aspartic acid, forming aspartic thioamide with 89.21 % selectivity in water.