Design and development of heterogeneous catalysts for sustainable formic acid-mediated alkylation of aromatics

The alkylation reaction of aromatic compounds gains considerable attention because of its wide application in bulk and fine chemical production. Developing green alkylation reagents and efficient alkylation routes is the goal pursued by researchers. As a recyclable carbon carrier and hydrogen storage medium, formic acid is ex-pected to be a widely used alkylation reagent because of its high reactivity and various functional groups. The decomposition route of formic acid dehydration or dehydrogenation and the adsorption mechanism of formate or carboxylate are expected to match the alkylation reactions of a wide range of substrates, thereby placing high demands on active site design. Accordingly, this review presents the current state of the art and outlook regarding the heterogeneously catalytic alkylation reaction of aromatics using sustainable formic acid. The future research directions for devel-oping new heterogeneous catalysts with transformational technolo-gies, including machine-learning-assisted catalyst optimization, are prospected.