Sustainable manufacturing research seeks to supplant petroleum feedstocks with biorenewable sources but also to reduce risk associated with hazardous chemistries. The monomer, 1,6-hexanediol (HD), may be used directly in the synthesis of polyesters or it may be converted to 1,6-hexanediamine (HMDA) for Nylon-66 manufacture. It has been demonstrated that hydrodeoxygenation of 1,2,6-hexanetriol (HT) over a Pt-WOx/TiO2 catalyst efficiently produces HD. With a goal of understanding the mechanism of this reaction, the present study compares the influence of deuterium gas versus hydrogen gas as the reductant. Evaluation of these mechanisms, with deuterium isotope incorporation, necessitates characterization of background isotopic exchange of D2 with the solvent in the present study. There is a dearth of fundamental information in the literature on this elementary step. Rates of isotope incorporation have been measured for the desired HDO reaction and a simple, water-soluble olefin reduction for comparison. The rate of isotope scrambling is greater than the rate of the HDO reaction and mechanistic studies must account for the real isotope coverage at the surface. The significance of these measurements upon elucidating a bifunctional HDO mechanism will be discussed.

Hydrodeoxygenation in water: Mechanistic insight from isotope incorporation

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.