1 Methyl ketones from carboxylic acids as valuable target molecules 2 in the biorefinery 3 4 Authors and affiliations 5 Olivier Mariea, Alexey V. Ignatchenkob, Michael Renzc,* 6 a Normandie Univ., ENSICAEN, UNICAEN, CNRS, LCS, 14000 Caen, France 7 b Chemistry Department, St. John Fisher College, 3690 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14618, USA 8 c Instituto de Tecnología Química, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia – Consejo Superior de 9 Investigaciones Científicas (UPV-CSIC), Avda. de los Naranjos s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain 10 Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 96 387 78 00. E-mail address:
[email protected] ∗ 11 12 13 Abstract 14 For the preparation of methyl ketones, cross Ketonic Decarboxylation, i.e., the formation of a 15 ketone from two different carboxylic acids, and the reketonization, i.e., the transformation of a 16 carboxylic acid into a ketone employing a ketone as alkyl transfer agent, may be interesting 17 alternatives to classical pathways involving metal-organic reagents. 18 The fine chemical 2-undecanone was chosen as model compound and ketonic decarboxylation 19 and reketonization evaluated by Green Chemistry matrices, namely the carbon atom efficiency 20 and the e-factor. The e-factor of the reaction of decanoic acid with acetic acid was less than 21 five and, therewith, in the acceptable range for bulk chemicals, when valorizing acetone (e.g., 22 as a solvent) and considering a 90% solvent recycling. The reketonization of decanoic acid with 23 acetone provided a different main product, namely 10-nonadecanone, with a detrimental 24 effect on atom efficiency. 25 By means of labeling experiments it was shown that ketonic decarboxylation is significantly 26 faster than the reketonization reaction.