Research on biomimetic catalytic system of eutectic solvent

Abstract

The oxidation reaction is one of the most important reactions in nature and a key transformation step in organic synthesis. The development of environmentally friendly, highly active, and highly selective catalysts is an effective way to realize oxidation reactions. However, it is difficult to directly perform the oxidation reaction with dioxygen due to the oxygen-induced high activation barrier under mild conditions. As a new type of green solvents, deep eutectic solvents have received extensive attention from academia and industry. The functionalized eutectic solvent can be used as an extractant, reaction medium, and catalyst simultaneously in the chemical reaction process. When an electron transfer medium is introduced between the functionalized eutectic solvent and dioxygen, the electrons will be transferred from the eutectic solvent to the oxygen molecules through the electron transfer medium along the low-energy pathway. It will avoid the high activation energy of the direct oxidation reaction and realize the activation of oxygen and the catalytic oxidation of the substrate under mild conditions, which is called low eutectic solvent biomimetic catalysis. In addition, the deep eutectic solvents can also imitate other biological enzymes, such as peroxidase, to construct a biomimetic oxidation system with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. This review systematically summarizes the research progress of eutectic solvents in biomimetic catalysis in the past three years, discusses its application in catalytic oxidation, analyzes the development trend of eutectic solvents in the field of biomimetic catalysis, and points out the urgent problems needed to be solved in the future.