Synthesis of novel chemicals from cardanol as a product of cashew nutshell processing

The conversion of the worldwide chemical production from fossil to sustainable resources is currently one of the most urgent tasks for the chemical industry. Based on this approach cardanol, a mixture of phenols with C15‐chains as substituents is produced in some countries of the tropical zone from the processing of cashew nutshells. The paper reports the specific transformation of the aromatic moiety in this cheap material, and thus, the development of a novel route to potential useful green bifunctional chemicals in gram scale. Accordingly, cardanol was converted successfully in three steps into hexane‐1,6‐diols. The evaluation of appropriate synthesis methods and suitable conditions for each of these reaction steps is presented as an essential topic of these investigations. The target compounds synthesized in the reaction sequence are potential building blocks for future biomass‐based chemicals and monomers for green polymeric materials, surfactants, and lubricants.