Glycerol photocatalytic oxidation to higher value-added compounds via bismuth oxyhalide photocatalysts

Paphada Limpachanangkul; Prathana Nimmmanterdwong; Licheng Liu; Mali Hunsom; Kejvalee Pruksathorn; Pornpote Piumsomboon; Benjapon Chalermsinsuwan

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-42246-3

Glycerol photocatalytic oxidation to higher value-added compounds via bismuth oxyhalide photocatalysts

Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 11;13(1):14936. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-42246-3.

Authors

Paphada Limpachanangkul¹, Prathana Nimmmanterdwong², Licheng Liu³, Mali Hunsom², Kejvalee Pruksathorn¹, Pornpote Piumsomboon¹, Benjapon Chalermsinsuwan^{4

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Affiliations

¹ Fuels Research Center, Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand.
³ Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, Shandong, China.
⁴ Fuels Research Center, Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. benjapon.c@chula.ac.th.
⁵ Center of Excellence On Petrochemical and Materials Technology, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. benjapon.c@chula.ac.th.
⁶ Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University, Pathumwan, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. benjapon.c@chula.ac.th.

Abstract

Bismuth oxyhalides (BiOX) including BiOCl, BiOBr, and BiOI, were well synthesized using solvothermal technique and then used in the aqueous phase photooxidation of glycerol as a catalyst. The as-synthesized BiOBr could achieve the highest glycerol transformation of around 85.6% in 8 h under ultraviolet light (UV) irradiation among as-synthesized BiOXs. Moreover, the BiOBr/TiO₂ heterojunction was also prepared through an ethylene glycol-assisted solvothermal process. This new BiOBr/TiO₂ heterostructure exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity (97.4%) for the oxidation of glycerol compared with pure BiOBr (74%) under ultraviolet light irradiation at 6 h. This obtained behavior was confirmed by more produced OH^• radicals of BiOBr/TiO₂.