Synthesis of acetic acid via methanol hydrocarboxylation with CO(2) and H(2)

Acetic acid is an important bulk chemical that is currently produced via methanol carbonylation using fossil based CO. Synthesis of acetic acid from the renewable and cheap CO(2) is of great importance, but state of the art routes encounter difficulties, especially in reaction selectivity and activity. Here we report a route to produce acetic acid from CO(2), methanol and H(2). The reaction can be efficiently catalysed by Ru–Rh bimetallic catalyst using imidazole as the ligand and LiI as the promoter in 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone (DMI) solvent. It is confirmed that methanol is hydrocarboxylated into acetic acid by CO(2) and H(2), which accounts for the outstanding reaction results. The reaction mechanism is proposed based on the control experiments. The strategy opens a new way for acetic acid production and CO(2) transformation, and represents a significant progress in synthetic chemistry.