Abstract
A mechanistic understanding of the roles of water is essential for developing highly active and selective catalysts for hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reactions because water is ubiquitous in such reaction systems. Here we present a study for phenol HDO on Fe catalysts using density functional theory which examines the effect of water on three elementary pathways for phenol HDO using an explicit solvation model. The presence of water is found to significantly decrease activation barriers required by hydrogenation reactions via two pathways. First, proton transfer in the hydrogen bonding network of the liquid water phase is nearly barrierless, which significantly promotes the direct tautomerization of phenol. Second, due to the high degree of oxophilicity on Fe, liquid water molecules are found to be easily dissociated into surface hydroxyl groups that can act as Bronsted acid sites. These sites dramatically promote hydrogenation reactions on the Fe surface. As a result, hydrogen-assisted dehydroxylation becomes...
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.