Guaiacol is an important feedstock for producing various high-value chemicals. However, the current production route of guaiacol relies heavily on fossil resources. Using lignin as a cheap and renewable feedstock to selectively produce guaiacol has great potential, but it is a challenge because of its heterogeneity and inert reactivity. Herein, we discovered that La(OTf)₃ could catalyze the transformation of lignin with guaiacol as the only liquid product. In the reaction, La(OTf)₃ catalyzed the hydrolysis of lignin ether linkages to form alkyl-syringol and alkyl-guaiacol, which further underwent decarbonization and demethoxylation to produce guaiacol with a yield of up to 25.5 wt%, and the remaining residue was solid. In the scale-up experiment, the isolated yield of guaiacol reached up to 21.2 wt%. To our knowledge, this is the first work to produce pure guaiacol selectively from lignin. The bio-guaiacol may be considered as a platform to promote lignin utilization.

中文翻译：

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以愈创木酚为唯一液体产物的木质素选择性催化转化

愈创木酚是生产各种高价值化学品的重要原料。但是，目前愈创木酚的生产路线严重依赖化石资源。使用木质素作为廉价且可再生的原料来选择性生产愈创木酚具有巨大的潜力，但是由于其异质性和惰性反应性，这是一个挑战。在这里，我们发现La（OTf）₃可以用愈创木酚作为唯一的液体产物来催化木质素的转化。在反应中，La（OTf）₃催化木质素醚键的水解形成烷基丁香酚和烷基愈创木酚，然后进一步进行脱碳和脱甲氧基化反应生成愈创木酚，产率高达25.5 wt％，剩余的残余物为固体。在放大实验中，愈创木酚的分离产率高达21.2重量％。就我们所知，这是从木质素选择性生产纯愈创木酚的第一项工作。生物愈创木酚可以被认为是促进木质素利用的平台。