Progress on the Catalysts for the Gas-Phase Carbonylation Synthesis of Dimethyl Carbonate from Methyl Nitrite and CO

The gas-phase carbonylation synthesis of Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from carbon monoxide (CO) and methyl nitrite (MN) has the advantages of good availability of raw materials, high purity of DMC product, and no adverse impact on catalyst activity from the byproduct of water. The key to this method is to develop an efficient and stable carbonylation catalyst suitable for the reaction between CO and MN. The reaction mechanism and research progress of the catalysts are reviewed, including chlorine-containing system and chlorine-free system catalysts. The chlorine-containing system is mainly Wacker-type catalyst, and the research focus is how to avoid the loss of Cl-. The chlorine-free system catalyst is mainly Pd/NaY zeolite catalyst, the challenge of this system catalyst is to stabilize the structure and chemical state of the active component to achieve high activity and selectivity. In the future, it is equally important to study the deactivation mechanism of the above-mentioned carbonyl catalysts.