Highly dispersed palladium supported on sulfuric acid-modified activated carbon for efficient dehydrogenation to produce novel aromatic monomer

Herein, a sustainable route to novel aromatic monomer, dimethyl 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,4-methanonaphthalene-5,8-dicarboxylate, was developed, in which dimethyl muconate and norbornene used as the diene and dienophile undergo Diels-Alder reaction followed by dehydrogenation. The polycyclic cycloadduct, octahydro-1,4-methanonaphthalene-5,8-dicarboxylate, could be synthesized without catalyst. The activated carbon modified with sulfuric acid generated more oxygen-containing groups, stronger acidity and more acidic sites. Highly dispersed palladium metal particles with an average particle size of about 1.0 nm exhibited excellent activity in the dehydrogenation reaction and the yield of target product reached 73.8 %.