Enhanced performance of the catalytic conversion of allyl alcohol to 3-hydroxypropionic acid using bimetallic gold catalysts

One of the strategic building blocks in organic synthesis is 3-hydroxypropionic acid, which is particularly important for the manufacture of high performance polymers. However, to date, despite many attempts using both biological and chemical routes, no large scale effective process for manufacturing 3-hydroxypropionic acid has been developed. One potentially useful starting point is from allyl alcohol, as this can be obtained in principle from the dehydration of glycerol, thereby presenting a bio-renewable green pathway to this important building block. The catalytic transformation of allyl alcohol to 3-hydroxypropionic acid presents interesting challenges in catalyst design, particularly with respect to the control of selectivity among the products that can be expected, as acrylic acid, acrolein and glyceric acid can also be formed. In this paper, we present a novel eco-sustainable catalytic pathway leading to 3-hydroxypropionic acid, which highlights the outstanding potential of gold-based and bimetallic catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of allyl alcohol.