Mechanistic insights into acid-affected hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol over an Ir-Re/SiO2 catalyst

Zheng Zhou; Xin Ren; Yueqiang Cao; Yi-An Zhu; Jinghong Zhou; Xinggui Zhou

doi:10.1039/d1cc06437a

Mechanistic insights into acid-affected hydrogenolysis of glycerol to 1,3-propanediol over an Ir-Re/SiO₂ catalyst

Chem Commun (Camb). 2022 Feb 22;58(16):2694-2697. doi: 10.1039/d1cc06437a.

Authors

Zheng Zhou¹, Xin Ren², Yueqiang Cao¹, Yi-An Zhu¹, Jinghong Zhou², Xinggui Zhou¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China. yqcao@ecust.edu.cn.
² School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, China. jhzhou@ecust.edu.cn.

PMID: 35108723
DOI: 10.1039/d1cc06437a

Abstract

Glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,3-propanediol is identified to follow the dehydration-hydrogenation pathway with the rate-determining step (RDS) of H* + OH* → H₂O* over an IrRe catalyst. The positive effects of solid acids are elucidated to originate from the reduced energy barrier of the RDS by H protons, while the negative ones of liquid acids are from excessively strong adsorption of anions.