Vanadium-Substituted Phosphomolybdic Acids for the Aerobic Cleavage of Lignin Models—Mechanistic Aspect and Extension to Lignin

This work deals with the aerobic oxidative cleavage of C-C and C-O bonds catalyzed by the Keggin-type phosphovanadomolybdic acid (H(6)[PMo(9)V(3)O(40)], noted H(6)PV(3)). The latter was synthesized by an adapted hydrothermal procedure classically used for lower vanadium content and was tested as a catalyst for the aerobic cleavage of 2-phenoxyacetophenone (noted K1(HH)) and 1-phenyl-2-phenoxyethanol (A1(HH)) used as two lignin models. The operative conditions (solvent, catalytic loading, etc.) were adjusted on K1(HH) and extrapolated to A1(HH). The cleavage of the alcohol model required more drastic conditions and therefore further optimization. Preliminary attempts on an Organosolv wheat straw lignin were performed too. From the kinetic study, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) data, a mechanism of the cleavage of both models was proposed.