A comparative study of thermal- and electrocatalytic conversion of furfural: methylfuran as a primary and major product

Bababrik, Reda; Santhanaraj, Daniel; Resasco, Daniel E.; Wang, Bin

doi:10.1007/s10800-020-01427-y

A comparative study of thermal- and electrocatalytic conversion of furfural: methylfuran as a primary and major product

Journal Article · Wed Apr 29 04:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Applied Electrochemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-020-01427-y· OSTI ID:1775274

Bababrik, Reda ^[1]; Santhanaraj, Daniel ^[2]; Resasco, Daniel E. ^[3]; Wang, Bin ^[3]

Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Center for Interfacial Reaction Engineering and School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering; University of Oklahoma
Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Center for Interfacial Reaction Engineering and School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering; Loyola College, Tamil Nadu, Chennai (India)
Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Center for Interfacial Reaction Engineering and School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering

Controlling reaction selectivity represents a fundamental challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Here, we compare the selectivity in aqueous-phase thermal catalytic and electrocatalytic conversion of furfural and report the fundamental difference in elementary steps in the two reaction systems. Specifically, we observed that furfural alcohol and 2-methylfuran, which is the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis product of furfural, respectively, are both primary products in electrocatalysis over a Cu electrode, with 2-methylfuran dominating the product distribution under electrode potentials between -0.55 and -0.75 V versus RHE. By contrast, in an aqueous-phase thermal reaction using a SiO₂-supported Cu catalyst, furfural alcohol and its derivatives from the ring-rearrangement reaction are the major products, without production of 2-methylfuran, at the reaction temperature between 140 and 200 °C. Here, we propose that the distinct selectivity trends for oxygenate conversion via thermal and electrocatalytic reduction result from the distinct sequence of proton attack to the aldehyde group and may be generally true for reduction reactions of other biomass-derived oxygenates.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018284

OSTI ID:: 1775274

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Electrochemistry Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 51; ISSN 0021-891X

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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