(583es) Potential Controlled Selective Oxidation of Glycerol in Anion Membrane Fuel Cell and Continuous Electro-Catalytic Reactors

Biomass is an intriguing renewable
and carbon neutral resources and expected to play a big part in the future
energy landscape. Bio-renewable glycerol will be mass-produced in the
manufacturing of biodiesel.  Glycerol is a
highly functionalized molecule featuring vicinal two primary and one secondary
hydroxyl groups that has great potential in the construction of major building
blocks for the production of new polymers, fine chemicals, pharmaceutical, etc.
In this presentation, selective oxidation of glycerol in anion exchange
membrane (AEM) fuel cell and continuous electro-catalytic reactors will be
discussed. We discovered that electrode potential plays a critical role in
controlling the glycerol oxidation product distribution. In a continuous
electro-catalytic AEM-based reactor, by tuning the anode potential from 0.35 to
0.65 V (vs. RHE), the selectivity to
tartronate dropped from 79% to 26%, while that to mesoxalate increased from 0
to 57% over gold nano-catalyst; At higher potential of 1.6 V (vs.
RHE), glycolate can be obtained with a very high selectivity of 85% under
mild conditions. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the structure of membrane
electrode assembly (MEA) in AEM fuel cell reactor could be tweaked to vary the
anode over-potentials, so as to simultaneous generate the valuable mesoxalate
or tartronate as well as electricity. This work opens up a new route to
sustainable producing valuable chemicals from bio-renewable polyols.