Selective photoelectrochemical oxidation of glycerol to high value-added dihydroxyacetone.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30992441.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-09788-5 and PMC identifier 6467901.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
It is highly profitable to transform glycerol - the main by-product from biodiesel production to high value-added chemicals. In this work, we develop a photoelectrochemical system based on nanoporous BiVO<sub>4</sub> for selective oxidation of glycerol to 1,3-dihydroxyacetone - one of the most valuable derivatives of glycerol. Under AM 1.5G front illumination (100 mW cm<sup>-2</sup>) in an acidic medium (pH = 2) without adscititious oxidant, the nanoporous BiVO<sub>4</sub> photoanode achieves a glycerol oxidation photocurrent density of 3.7 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> at a potential of 1.2 V versus RHE with 51% 1,3-dihydroxyacetone selectivity, equivalent to a production rate of 200 mmol of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone per m<sup>2</sup> of illumination area in one hour.