Congratulations to Dr. Anittha Prasertsab, postdoctoral researcher from the School of Energy Science and Engineering (ESE) under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chularat Wattanakit, for the recent article in ACS Applied engineering materials.
Topic: Silanol-Rich-Nanosized Cu-MOR Zeolite for Nonoxidative Dehydrogenation of Bioethanol to Acetaldehyde
Acetaldehyde is an important platform chemical traditionally produced via the Wacker–Hoechst process, which suffers from severe corrosion, chlorinated waste generation, and catalyst instability. To address these challenges, silanol-rich nanosized Cu-MOR zeolite catalysts were developed from nanosilica extracted from commercial sand for the sustainable conversion of bioethanol to acetaldehyde. The defect-rich silanol sites enabled highly dispersed Cu nanoparticles (3–4 nm), resulting in superior catalytic performance with 63.5% ethanol conversion and 75.3% acetaldehyde selectivity, significantly outperforming conventional bulk MOR catalysts. This work highlights the crucial role of silanol density, acidity, and Cu⁰/Cu⁺ active species in maximizing acetaldehyde production, offering a promising heterogeneous catalyst for sustainable bioethanol valorization.
This work has been funded by Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC) and the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) (e-ASIA JRP program, Grant No. N11A690542). In addition, A.P. acknowledges financial support from the NSRF through the Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B) (Grant No. B13F680098).
Visit this article: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaenm.6c00276