Abstract
The one-pot hydrolytic hydrogenation of cellulose (HHC) with heterogeneous catalysts is an interesting method for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals from a renewable resource like lignocellulosic biomass. Supported metal catalysts are interesting for this application because they can contain the required active sites for the two catalytic steps of the HHC reaction (hydrolysis and hydrogenation). In this work, Ru catalysts have been prepared using a commercial carbon black that has been modified by sulfonation and oxidation treatments with H2SO4 and (NH4)S2O8, respectively, in order to create acidic surface sites. The correlation between the catalysts’ properties and catalytic activity has been addressed after detailed catalyst characterization. The prepared catalysts are active for cellulose conversion, being that prepared with the carbon black treated with sulfuric acid the most selective to sorbitol (above 40%). This good behavior can be mainly explained by the suitable porous structure and surface chemistry of the carbon support together with the low content of residual chlorine.
Highlights
Cellulose is a water-insoluble polymer composed of glucose units linked by β-1,4-glycosidic bonds and with a robust structure as a consequence of the abundant inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds
Species I: Ru or Ru/RuOx, b species II: Ru bonded to O. These results indicate that the amount of oxidized Ru is close to 40%—similar in the three prepared samples and in acceptable agreement with the proportion of oxidized Ru determined by the temperature programmed reduction (TPR)
These results indicate that the amount of oxidized Ru is close to 40%—similar in the three prepared samples and in acceptable agreement with the proportion of oxidized Ru determined by the TPR measurements
Summary
Cellulose is a water-insoluble polymer composed of glucose units linked by β-1,4-glycosidic bonds and with a robust structure as a consequence of the abundant inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds. Among the several solids that can be used as a catalyst support, carbon materials have been shown to be suitable because they can be prepared with large surface area and appropriated pore size, and their surface chemistry can be tuned [16,17,18,19] These properties enable a good dispersion of the active species and a proper diffusion of reactants and products. In order to create acidic surface sites, it has been modified by sulfonation and oxidation treatments with H2 SO4 and (NH4 )S2 O8 , respectively This supported system for bifunctional catalysts with appropriate textural properties contains hydrolysis and hydrogenation active sites. This study can be of interest to those looking to extend the use of the prepared catalysts to the transformation of lignocellulosic biomass, as reported, for example, by Li et al [26]
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