One of the strategic building blocks in organic synthesis is
3-hydroxypropionic acid, which is particularly important for the manufacture of high performance
polymers. However, to date, despite many attempts using both
biological and chemical routes, no large scale effective process for manufacturing
3-hydroxypropionic acid has been developed. One potentially useful starting point is from
allyl alcohol, as this can be obtained in principle from the
dehydration of
glycerol, thereby presenting a bio-renewable green pathway to this important building block. The catalytic transformation of
allyl alcohol to
3-hydroxypropionic acid presents interesting challenges in catalyst design, particularly with respect to the control of selectivity among the products that can be expected, as
acrylic acid,
acrolein and
glyceric acid can also be formed. In this paper, we present a novel eco-sustainable catalytic pathway leading to
3-hydroxypropionic acid, which highlights the outstanding potential of
gold-based and bimetallic catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of
allyl alcohol.