Efficient Aerobic Oxidation of Ethyl Lactate to Ethyl Pyruvate over V2O5/g-C3N4 Catalysts

Jiequn Wu; Weiming Hua; Yinghong Yue; Zi Gao

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c01822

Efficient Aerobic Oxidation of Ethyl Lactate to Ethyl Pyruvate over V₂O₅/g-C₃N₄ Catalysts

ACS Omega. 2020 Jun 25;5(26):16200-16207. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c01822. eCollection 2020 Jul 7.

Authors

Jiequn Wu¹, Weiming Hua¹, Yinghong Yue¹, Zi Gao¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, P. R. China.

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄)-supported V₂O₅ catalysts were prepared by the impregnation pyrolysis method, and their physicochemical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-vis, TGA, N₂ adsorption, and H₂-TPR. These catalysts exhibit extremely high activity and selectivity in the aerobic oxidation of ethyl lactate to ethyl pyruvate. The excellent catalytic performance derives from the high surface-chemisorbed oxygen species. Low calcination temperature and interaction with g-C₃N₄ are conducive to increasing the surface-chemisorbed oxygen species of V₂O₅. The optimal catalyst 13V₂O₅/g-C₃N₄ gives 96.2% conversion of ethyl lactate with 85.6% selectivity toward ethyl pyruvate in 4 h at 130 °C and 1 atm oxygen, which is significantly superior to those of previously reported V-containing catalysts. This catalyst is also stable and reusable, and the ethyl pyruvate yield is reduced by less than 10% after four runs without any regeneration treatment.