Synthesis of strained high-energy rocket bio-kerosene via cyclopropanation of myrcene

With the rapid development of spacecraft such as rocket, it is increasingly important to develop high-energy and sustainable fuels. Biofuels synthesized from biomass derivatives provide great convenience for sustainable development. In this work, we reported a route for synthesis of high-energy cyclopropane bio-kerosene by cyclopropanation of myrcene with zinc carbenoid. The reaction conditions including reaction time, reaction temperature, solvent and molar ratio were optimized. Finally, a tricyclic cyclopropane bio-kerosene was synthesized with 69.8% yield under optimum conditions (i.e. zinc carbenoid synthesis temperature of −15 °C, cyclopropanation temperature of 25 °C and solvent of dichloromethane). Importantly, this bio-kerosene possesses a high specific impulse of 328.25 s, much better than the commercial rocket kerosene RP-1, as well as a high net-heat-value of 43.4 MJ/kg and good low-temperature properties.