Selection of competitive adsorption additives to relieve product inhibition of maleic acid hydrogenation in proton exchange membrane flow cell reactor: A molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

Adsorption of products on carbon carriers and the sluggish mass transport of products in the catalytic layer lead to product inhibition in proton exchange membrane flow cell reactor (PEMFCR), which seriously decreases hydrogenation performance. Here, via molecular dynamics simulations, an alleviative mechanism of competitive adsorption additives on product inhibition is proposed by choosing biomass derivatives maleic acid (MA) as hydrogenation model compound and ethanol (EtOH) as an additive model. The enhanced solvation and competitive adsorption synergistically promote the outflow of product succinic acid (SA) from the catalytic layer. Strong hydrophobic-hydrophobic interactions between EtOH and SA promote solvation and solubility of SA in the solvent water, and meanwhile the competitive adsorption steric hindrance of EtOH on adsorption interfaces weakens van der Waals interactions between SA and carbon carriers. Accordingly, the main structural characteristics that influence competitive adsorption of additives, such as, amphiphilic structure, polarity, molecular weight, and size of hydrophobic moiety, are exacted for selection of favorable additives. Among the studied water miscible alcohol and ketone additives, isopropanol (iPrOH) is proved to be favorable, which is further verified by the highest increase (64.3%) of hydrogenation conversion of MA in experiments. This work could provide theoretical guidance for selecting high-performance additives, intensifying heterogeneous hydrogenation in PEMFCR.