Abstract
The one-pot production of succinic acid from glucose was investigated in pure hot water as solvent using Nb (0.02 and 0.05 moles%)-Beta zeolites obtained by a post-synthesis methodology. Structurally, they are comprised of residual framework Al-acid sites, extra-framework isolated Nb (V) and Nb2O5 pore-encapsulated clusters. The Nb-modified Beta-zeolites acted as bi-functional catalysts in which glucose is dehydrated to levulinic acid (LA) which, further, suffers an oxidation process to succinic acid (SA). After the optimization of the reaction conditions, that is, at 180 °C, 18 bar O2, and 12 h reaction time, the oxidation of glucose occurred with a selectivity to succinic acid as high as 84% for a total conversion.
Highlights
The use of the biomass as feedstock ensures the sustainability of resources and, on this basis, it is of a high current interest for the chemical industry [1,2,3,4,5]
The crystallinity of the samples was defined on the basis of the three characteristics diffraction lines of Beta zeolite at Bragg angles of 7.5°, 21.3° and 22.4°, and it was calculated by using Equation (1) [30], of Beta zeolite at Bragg angles of 7.5◦, 21.3◦ and 22.4◦, and it was calculated by using Equation (1) [30], considering as reference the Beta zeolite sample with the highest intensity of the diffraction of these considering as reference the Beta zeolite sample with the highest intensity of the diffraction of these three lines
The insertion of Nb into the Beta zeolite framework is not replacing the tetrahedral positions occupied by aluminum, but following a post synthesis methodology it is possible to afford a very high dispersion of linked Nb(V) species
Summary
The use of the biomass as feedstock ensures the sustainability of resources and, on this basis, it is of a high current interest for the chemical industry [1,2,3,4,5]. The conversion of glucose into monomers emerged as very important. It is necessary to make it available in large quantities via either chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis of both cellulose and hemicelluloses [6]. To answer the complexity and diverse reactivity of the various biomass substrates, it is necessary to develop novel catalytic systems able to afford with high reaction rates the required conversions and selectivities of the feedstocks [7,8]. In the absence of a catalyst, the WO of glucose is a very unselective process [9,10,11,12]
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