One-Pot Electrosynthesis of Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) from Biomass-Derived Furoic Acid

An efficient catalytic method to transform biomass into value-added products is critical to promoting a sustainable future. Ideally, such a transformation should be carried out efficiently in mild conditions. Herein, we developed a mild one-pot electrochemical protocol for converting furoic acid (FA), a common biomass-derived feedstock, into a versatile platform chemical, gamma-butyrolactone (GBL). All involved species participate in the desired redox pathway with high selectivity: FA was electrochemically oxidized with 84.2% selectivity to 2(5H)-furanone, the olefin of which was then hydrogenated to yield GBL with 98.5% selectivity. We identified that a specific temperature is an essential factor in enabling the one-pot reaction as it promotes thermal desorption of the key intermediate. The reaction was scalable to gram-scale, producing high-purity GBL isolated through a simple solvent extraction from a 500-mL electrolysis scale reaction.