Selective photoelectrochemical oxidation of glycerol to high value-added dihydroxyacetone

• Main Authors: Liu, Dong, Liu, Jin-Cheng, Cai, Weizheng, Ma, Jun, Yang, Hong Bin, Xiao, Hai, Li, Jun, Xiong, Yujie, Huang, Yanqiang, Liu, Bin
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Organic Chemistry; Photocatalysis; DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/102872; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48065
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

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 BiVO4 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−2) in an acidic medium (pH = 2) without adscititious oxidant, the nanoporous BiVO4 photoanode achieves a glycerol oxidation photocurrent density of 3.7 mA cm−2 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 m2 of illumination area in one hour.