Aromatization from trans dehydrogenation

Recent work by Atalla(H) supports the idea that lignin is at least a semi-ordered substance in wood with the plane of the aromatic ring parallel to the cell wall surface. Woody plants synthesize lignin from trans-coniferyl alcohol (pines), trans-sinapyl alcohol 2 (deciduous), and trans-4-coumaryl alcohol 3 by free radical crosslinking initiated by enzymatic dehydrogenation(l2). Structures of these alcohols are given in Figure 1. 

The various TPR peaks may correspond to different active sites. One hypothesis assumed cyclization over metallic and complex (Section II,B,4) platinum sites (62e) the participation of various crystallographic sites (Section V,A) cannot be excluded either. Alternatively, the peaks may represent three different rate determining steps of stepwise aromatization such as cyclization, dehydrogenation, and trans-cis isomerization. If the corresponding peak also appears in the thermodesorption spectrum of benzene, it may be assumed that the slow step is the addition of hydrogen to one or more type of deeply dissociated surface species which may equally be formed from adsorbed benzene itself (62f) or during aromatization of various -Cg hydrocarbons. Figure 11 in Section V,A shows the character of such a species of hydrocarbon. 

We also discovered the ability of 2-azadienes of this sort to cycloadd to unactivated carbon—carbon double and triple bonds in an intramolecular fashion (89CC267) (Scheme 50) such a process appears to be one of the first examples of intramolecular [4 + 2] cycloadditions of simple 2-azadienes. Azadiene 216 was made from O-allyl salicylaldehyde 215 (R = allyl) and heated at 120°C in toluene to furnish the trans-fused tricyclic adduct 217 in excellent yield further dehydrogenation of 217 with DDQ afforded 5H-[ 1 ]-benzopyran[4,3-6]pyridine 218. On the other hand, when 0-(2-butynyl) salicylaldehyde 215 (R = 2-butynyl) was transformed into azadiene 219 and subjected to heating in a sealed tube at 150°C, pyridine 222 was isolated in very high yield. Its formation can be rationalized to occur via the expected Diels-Alder intermediate 220 thus, [1,5]-H shift in 220 would give rise to tautomer 221, which would suffer electro-cyclic ring-opening and aromatization to pyridine derivative 222. 

Aromatization, however, may also be envisaged as taking place via stepwise dehydrogenation of an unbranched hydrocarbon molecule followed by ring closure of the polyunsaturated intermediates. In fact, the formation of dienes was proved during the aromatization of C6 and C7 alkanes to the corresponding aromatics over monofunctional metal oxides and metal black, and bifunctional catalysts.307 308 Radiotracer studies even allowed the detection in very low concentration of hexatriene during the aromatization of n-hexane over Pt black.309 It was also proposed that aromatics are formed from the cis isomers, whereas trans isomers may be coke precursors.213 Direct experimental evidence has recently been... 

In the purest sense, lignin is a complex racemic consisting from aromatic heteropolymers produced by free radical coupling reactions initiated by enzymatic dehydrogenation of the three primary precursors, the hydroxycinnamyl alcohol monomers differing in their degree of methoxylation trans-4-coumaryl alcohol [3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-propenol)], trans-coniferyl alcohol [3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-propenol)] and trans-sinapyl alcohols [3-(4-hydroxy-3,5-dime-thoxyphenyl)-2-propenol)] (Fig. 8.4). 

---