Journal
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ELECTROCHEMISTRY
Volume 51, Issue 1, Pages 19-26Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10800-020-01427-y
Keywords
Electrocatalysis; Furfural reduction; Oxygenates
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Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences [DE-SC0018284]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0018284] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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This study compares the selectivity in aqueous-phase thermal catalytic and electrocatalytic conversion of furfural and reveals fundamental differences in elementary steps in the two reaction systems. In electrocatalysis, 2-methylfuran dominates as the product, while in thermal catalysis, furfural alcohol and its derivatives are the major products.
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 degrees C. 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. [GRAPHICS] .
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