Oxidation of Glycerol to Glycolate by using Supported Gold and Palladium Nanoparticles

Abstract

Glycolic acid is an important chemical that has uses as a cleaning agent as well as a chemical intermediate. At present glycolic acid is manufactured from either chloroacetic acid or from formaldehyde hydrocyanation, both routes being nongreen and using nonsustainable resources. We investigate the possibility of producing glycolate from the oxidation of glycerol, a sustainable raw material. We show that by using 1 % wt Au/carbon catalysts prepared using a sol-immobilization method glycolate yields of ca. 60 % can be achieved, using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant in an autoclave reactor. We describe and discuss the reaction mechanism and consider the reaction conditions that maximize the formation of glycolate.

Base-Free Selective Oxidation of Glycerol over LDH Hosted Transition Metal Complexes Using 3% H2O2 as Oxidant

“…In the past decades, there were many successful reports on the selective oxidation of GLY using noble metal catalysts [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. However, due to the high cost and easy catalyst deactivation of noble metal catalysts, the design of efficient transition metal catalysts was becoming a hot point in the current research area [1,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Selective glycerol oxidation over ordered mesoporous copper aluminum oxide catalysts

“…In the literature, the formation of glycolic acid is suggested to proceed via decarboxylation of tartronic acid to yield CO 2 as a side product. 74,75 However, since large amounts of glycolic acid are being formed within the first reaction hour, where the carbon mass balance is practically closed, glycolic acid is likely to be formed as a primary reaction product from glycerol via glyceraldehyde or dihydroxyacetone as intermediates, as it was also reported previously. 30,44,76,77 The direct generation of glycolic acid from glycerol as a primary reaction product is also supported by the formation of large quantities of formic acid in the beginning of the reaction, which is a side product of the reaction from glycerol to glycolic acid.…”

Oxidação de glicerol sobre nanopartículas de ouro suportadas em carvão ativado: monitoramento quimiométrico da reação por ESI-MS e MIR

“…11 Inicialmente preparou-se uma solução aquosa de HAuCl 4 ). Finalmente, o material foi seco em estufa a 120 ºC por 24 h.…”

“…O glicolato pode ser obtido via descarboxilação do tartronato. 11,17 Estudos sobre o mecanismo dessa reação sugerem que as etapas reacionais ocorridas na presença de hidroxila apresentam barreiras de ativação consideravelmente menores e mais favoráveis que os realizados em sua ausência. Além disso, foi demostrado que os átomos de oxigênio incorporados no glicerol durante sua oxidação são provenientes da hidroxila (base promotora) em vez do agente oxidante.…”