Hydrogen Peroxide → Ethyl 9-oxononanoate

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Reaction Steps

As an example, oleic acid can be oxidatively cleaved into nonanal (m.p. −18° C., b.p. 195° C.) and oxononanoic acid (m.p. 70° C., b.p. 181-182° C.) with oxygen, air or hydrogen peroxide. Nonanal can be utilized as is or converted to nonanol (m.p. −7° C., b.p. 215° C.) by catalytic hydrogenation. The nonanal can be distilled off and the high melting oxonanoic acid can be converted to an ester by reaction with bio-derived ethanol to produce ethyl 9-oxononanoate (m.p. 5° C.). The following represents the reaction scheme:

Provenance & Evidence