Oxidative decarboxylation of levulinic acid by silver(I)/persulfate

The oxidative decarboxylation of levulinic acid (LA) by silver(I)/persulfate [Ag(I)/S?O?2?] has been investigated in this paper. The effects of buffer solution, initial pH value, time and temperature and dosages of Ag(I)/S?O?2? on the decarboxylation of LA were examined in batch experiments and a reaction scheme was proposed on basis of the reaction process. The experimental results showed that a solution of NaOH-KH?PO? was comparatively suitable for the LA decarboxylation reaction by silver(I)/persulfate. Under optimum conditions (temperature 160 °C, pH 5.0, and time 0.5 h), the rate of LA conversion in NaOH-KH?PO? solutions with an initial concentration of 0.01 mol LA reached 70.2%, 2-butanone (methyl ethyl ketone) was the single product in the gas phase and the resulted molar yield reached 44.2%.