Efficient methoxycarbonylation of diisobutylene over functionalized ZSM-5 supported cobalt complex catalysts

By grafting nitrogen-containing complexes onto ZSM-5 mesoporous material and then supporting a cobalt catalyst in situ, the methoxycarbonylation of diisobutylene (DIB) was achieved. Moreover, a series of functionalized ZSM-5 mesoporous materials containing different nitrogen complexes were synthesized and characterized by FT-IR, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, XRD, SEM, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Subsequently, the catalytic activity of functionalized ZSM-5 mesoporous materials and the reaction parameters in the methoxycarbonylation of DIB were investigated. The results revealed that the conversion of DIB was 88.3% and the selectivity for methyl isononanoate was 93.4% under solvent-free conditions at 6.0 MPa and 140 °C for 10 h by using the catalyst [email protected]2(CO)8. The potential mechanism for this catalytic reaction was also put forth. Admittedly, these inexpensive and easy-to-recover heterogeneous catalysts can replace the noble metal palladium complexes on a laboratory scale to achieve partial olefin carbonylation reactions.