Efficient and Stable Cu‐Cu₂O@NC Catalysts for Selective Catalytic Conversion of Glycerol to Lactic Acid

Abstract

Developing efficient Cu‐based catalysts for catalytic conversion of glycerol to lactic acid has attracted much attention because of the low cost and high activity. However, construction of efficient Cu‐based catalysts with high stability for aqueous reactions at high temperatures still remains a challenge. Herein, highly dispersed Cu0 and Cu2O nanoparticles encapsulated by N‐doped C (Cu‐Cu2O@NC) were constructed by calcination of Cu‐based MOF for the catalytic dehydrogenation of glycerol to lactic acid under N2 atmosphere. The Cu‐Cu2O@NC‐400 catalyst exhibited 100 % conversion of glycerol with 84.8 % selectivity to lactic acid at 220 °C for 90 min. The Cu‐Cu2O@NC‐400 catalyst could be reused for eight times with almost no loss in the catalytic activity. The Cu‐Cu2O@NC‐400 catalyst is stable in the harsh reaction conditions, for the aggregation of Cu nanoparticles is avoided due to the confinement effect. The Cu‐Cu2O@NC‐400 catalyst demonstrated high catalytic activity and superior reusability benefitting from the N‐doping and highly dispersed Cu nanoparticles embedded in N‐doped C. This work will pave the way for designing efficient catalysts with high stability for catalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols.

Heterogeneous Chitosan@copper Catalyzed Selective C(sp3)–H Sulfonylation of Ketone Hydrazones with Sodium Sulfinates: Direct Access to β-Ketosulfones

“…Additionally, the catalyst was characterized by XRD (Figure 3e). As can be seen, the Cu x O y @CS-400 catalyst mainly showed sharp diffraction peaks of Cu and relatively weak peaks of Cu [60,61], In addition, a broad diffraction peak centered at 24.2 • , which can be assigned to (002) reflections of amorphous carbon phase [62]. These analysis results verified that the catalyst structure contained Cu and CuO.…”

“…There was an Auger peak in the XPS spectra of the prepared catalyst at 570.2 eV. From this, we can conclude that Cu2O was present on the surface of the catalyst [58][59][60]. Additionally, the catalyst was characterized by XRD (Figure 3e).…”

Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous catalysts for acceptorless dehydrogenation of biomass-derived glycerol and ethanol towards circular chemistry

“…Most recently, Zhang and Chen et al carried out the catalytic dehydrogenation of glycerol to lactic acid under N 2 atmosphere using highly dispersed Cu 0 and Cu 2 O nanoparticles encapsulated by N-doped C (Cu-Cu 2 O@NC), which were prepared by calcining Cu-based MOF. 53 The Cu-Cu 2 O@NC-400 catalyst was found to have 100% glycerol conversion with 84.8% selectivity towards lactic acid at 220 °C for 90 minutes. Furthermore, the Cu-Cu 2 O@NC-400 catalyst remained highly effective after being reused eight times with negligible loss of catalytic activity.…”

Glycerol selective oxidation to lactic acid over platinum–vanadium bimetallic catalysts supported on activated carbon

“…The authors achieved a lactic acid selectivity of 92.2% at a glycerol conversion of 97.6%. Zhang et al 31 described the process for glycerol dehydrogenation using encapsulated Cu-based catalysts by utilizing nitrogen-doped carbon. The Cu–Cu 2 O@NC-400 catalyst achieved 100% glycerol conversion and 84.8% lactic acid selectivity at 220 °C in 90 min.…”