The Chemistry of Oleates and Related Compounds in 2020s

Abstract

The use of renewable resources as an alternative to fossil raw materials is one of the topical directions of modern science. Consistent efforts are being taken to find the most prospective feedstocks and to develop efficient methods of their processing. Among others, plant oils represent promising source for the fuel, chemical, polymer, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Unsaturated fatty acids (FAs) and their derivatives, particularly oleates and ricinoleates, are seen as a starting materials for both organochemical modifications to obtain functional materials and catalytic transformations to α-olefins, unsaturated carboxylic acids and their derivatives, branched hydrocarbons and other valuable compounds demanded in fine chemistry and polymer industry. In 2020s, significant progress has been made in all fields of oleochemistry, and in the present work we have tried to provide the broadest overview of the chemistry of oleates and related compounds, derivatives of unsaturated FAs. Our review addresses the issues of raw material processing and purification as well as catalytic and organochemical transformations of unsaturated FAs and FA esters with and without the cleavage of C=C bonds. The most promising actual topics and the prospects of their further development are also discussed in this work.