Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Cellulose to Gluconate on Carbon Aerogel Supported Gold Nanoparticles Anode in Alkaline Medium

Catalysts

Hanshuang Xiao¹  Meifen Wu¹  Guohua Zhao² 

[1] Department of Chemistry, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

关键词: cellulose;    alkaline condition;    electrocatalytic oxidation;    carbon aerogel supported Au nanoparticles;    gluconate;   

DOI  :  10.3390/catal6010005

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The development of high efficient and low energy consumption approaches for the transformation of cellulose is of high significance for a sustainable production of high value-added feedstocks. Herein, electrocatalytic oxidation technique was employed for the selective conversion of cellulose to gluconate in alkaline medium by using concentrated HNO₃ pretreated carbon aerogel (CA) supported Au nanoparticles as anode. Results show that a high gluconate yield of 67.8% and sum salts yield of 88.9% can be obtained after 18 h of electrolysis. The high conversion of cellulose and high selectivity to gluconate could be attributed to the good dissolution of cellulose in NaOH solution which promotes its hydrolysis, the surface oxidized CA support and Au nanoparticles catalyst which possesses high amount of active sites. Moreover, the bubbled air also plays important role in the enhancement of cellulose electrocatalytic conversion efficiency. Lastly, a probable mechanism for electrocatalytic oxidation of cellulose to gluconate in alkaline medium was also proposed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.