MeSesamol, a bio-based and versatile polar aprotic solvent for organic synthesis and depolymerization

Applications of polar aprotic solvents are inevitable in the chemical industry, but few nonhazardous alternatives are available. Herein, we propose methyl sesamol (MeSesamol) as a promising new bio-based alternative for polar aprotic solvents and demonstrate its versatile applications. MeSesamol was derived from natural resources using environmentally friendly and facile procedures, such as methylation using dimethyl carbonate. MeSesamol has a distinctive smell and demonstrates excellent properties as a green solvent candidate: high boiling and open-cup flash points, immiscibility with water but miscibility with common organic solvents, high stability and resistance to several acids and bases. MeSesamol was an effective solvent in nine C–C coupling reactions, including the Suzuki and Sonogashira reactions and asymmetric Michael addition. MeSesamol lies close to dichloromethane (DCM) in Hansen space and achieves a similar or higher yield and enantiomeric excess (up to 97% and 99%, respectively) in the asymmetric Michael reactions compared to DCM. MeSesamol proved to be an excellent recyclable solvent in the depolymerizations of bisphenol-A polycarbonate (BPA–PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). MeSesamol was recycled in five reaction cycles with excellent efficiency (92%–100%) and outstanding cumulative monomer yields (92% bisphenol-A from BPA–PC and 92% terephthalic acid from PET). To properly compare the depolymerization reactions, we propose two green metrics, namely, the corrected energy-economy factor (εcorr) and the corrected environmental energy impact (ξcorr).