The production of value-added chemicals from biomass has attracted a lot of attention in recent years because biomass is renewable and shares functional groups with many of the desired products. Specially, the conversion of sugars into lactic acid, ethylene glycol, and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural was the scope of many studies. Lewis acid catalyzed reactions like isomerization of glucose to fructose, retro-aldol condensation and the Cannizzaro reaction play a key role in the production of these chemicals. Different Lewis acids have shown high selectivity for some of these reactions, but there is no systematic understanding of which properties of the Lewis acids result in selectivity for one path or another.<br/> <br/>To answer this question, we studied the interactions of bifunctional oxygenates with well-defined Lewis acid sites in zeolite BEA using in-situ IR spectroscopy. Surface intermediates and reaction paths for their interconversion are identified and descriptors for the performance of different Lewis acids are proposed based on the results.

Reactions of oxygenates on well-defined Lewis acid sites in zeolite BEA

255th National Meeting (2018)

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