Tuning the Product Selectivity toward the High Yield of Glyceric Acid in Pt−CeO₂/CNT Electrocatalyzed Oxidation of Glycerol

Abstract

Electrocatalytic oxidation of glycerol is a highly efficient way for upgrading glycerol toward fine chemicals. Currently, electrooxidation of glycerol into the high value-added C3 products remains a big challenge because of the poor catalytic activity, low selectivity, and high cost of the noble metal catalysts, especially in the alkaline medium. Here, we report that the PtÀ CeO 2 /CNT (CNT = carbon nanotubes) catalyst remarkably promotes the conversion (86.5 % vs. 37.6 %) and recycling stability for glycerol electro-oxidation reaction, as compared with Pt/CNT. However, the improved catalytic activity of PtÀ CeO 2 /CNT is accompanied by the further oxidation of C3 products including glyceric acid (GLYA). By tuning the product distribution by the ratio of CeO 2 and CNT, applied potential, and the Pt loading amount, the high selectivities of C3 products (95 %) and GLYA (59 %) are achieved together with the high glycerol conversion (86 %), leading to the impressive yields of C3 products (81 %) and GLYA (50 %). The unique contributions of CeO 2 includes not only the enhanced catalytic activity and recycling stability, but also the suppressed further oxidation of GLYA. Moreover, higher yield of GLYA is reached over PtÀ CeO 2 / CNT even with half loading of Pt, as compared with Pt/CNT.

Pulse potential mediated selectivity for the electrocatalytic oxidation of glycerol to glyceric acid

“…This performance surpasses that of most reported results in the literature (Fig. 2f and Supplementary Table 3 ) 24 , 33 – 38 .…”

Selective Glycerol‐to‐glycerate Electro‐oxidation on Cerium‐modified Pt/C Nanocatalyst in an Alkaline Direct Alcohol Fuel Cell: Cogeneration of Energy and Value‐added Products

“…The ECSA calculated for the electrocatalyst modified with ceria was the double than in the case of Pt/C, where the catalytic activity increased given that the modified electrocatalyst had 50 % less Pt mass loading and still maintained the current density magnitude for the CO oxidation process. Li et al [40] observed a similar behavior for Cemodified Pt catalysts supported on carbon nanotubes.…”

Synergy of Pt Single Atom and Clusters toward Selective Glycerol Oxidation

“…The major oxygen species were the surface lattice oxygen in the vicinity of Pt, centered at 365 °C; and the surface lattice oxygen distant from Pt, centered at 492 °C. [14] The presence of PtÀ OÀ Ce species over 0.2%Pt atom /CeO 2 led to a lower reduction temperature (365 °C) of surface lattice oxygen. The reduction temperature of the surface lattice oxygen over 1.0%Pt cluster /CeO 2 increased to ~405 °C since the number of PtÀ OÀ Ce species was reduced.…”