(509bi) Elucidation of Surface Moieties during Furfural Oxidation on Platinum Catalysts Using in-Situ Spectroscopy

Efficient utilization of renewable electricity is of growing importance as these resources continue to become more available. Electrochemistry offers an opportunity to store electrical energy in the form of chemical bonds, including the valorization of various biomass derived feedstocks, with a lower carbon intensity than equivalent thermochemical methods of valorization. One reaction of particular interest is the partial oxidation of furfural to various fine chemicals including furoic acid, a potential precursor toward monomers for green plastics.

Here we use attenuated total reflectance surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR SEIRAS) to investigate the dominate surface moieties over a range of voltages. This builds on our prior work which identified several key surface species including CO and adsorbed furoate,^1,2 identifying several new reactive moieties by expanding the spectral range with thin-film ATR cells. Modulation excitation spectroscopy is further used to distinguish key features and elucidate a reaction mechanism.

(1) Román, A. M.; Hasse, J. C.; Medlin, J. W.; Holewinski, A. Elucidating Acidic Electro-Oxidation Pathways of Furfural on Platinum. ACS Catal. 2019, 9 (11), 10305–10316. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.9b02656.

(2) Román, A. M.; Agrawal, N.; Hasse, J. C.; Janik, M. J.; Medlin, J. W.; Holewinski, A. Electro-Oxidation of Furfural on Gold Is Limited by Furoate Self-Assembly. J. Catal. 2020, 391, 327–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcat.2020.08.034.