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A green way for pyruvic acid synthesis from biomass-derived L-malic acid on tetrahedral versus octahedral cobalt sites/hematite

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Abstract

A series of cobalt-iron mixed oxides, CoxFe3−xO4 (x = 0; 0.05; 0.1; 0.15), were synthesized by coprecipitation and tested for oxidative decarboxylation of malic acid to pyruvic or malonic acid. The characterization of catalysts was performed by different techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFT) and Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis). Among studied catalysts, Co0.15Fe2.85O4 sample (denoted Co3Fe) showed the highest malic acid conversion in oxidative decarboxylation reaction as well as the highest pyruvic acid yield. This behavior can be due to the fact that this sample has the highest content of tetrahedral Co2+ that replaces Fe3+ from octahedral position that determine an increased number of defects that play a crucial role for the malic acid conversion.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS–UEFISCDI, project number PNIII-P4-ID-PCE-2020–0580, within PNCDI III. Furthermore, M. Florea and F. Neatu were supported by Core Program PN19-03 (contract no. 21 N/08.02.2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry & Catalysis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 4-12, Blv. Regina Elisabeta, 030018, Bucharest, Romania

    Gheorghiţa Mitran, Adriana Urdă, Octavian-Dumitru Pavel & Mihaela Florea

  2. National Institute of Material Physics, 405A Atomiştilor, PO Box MG 7, 077125, Măgurele, Romania

    Ștefan Neațu, Mihaela Florea & Florentina Neaţu

Authors
  1. Gheorghiţa Mitran
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  2. Adriana Urdă
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  3. Octavian-Dumitru Pavel
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  4. Ștefan Neațu
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  5. Mihaela Florea
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  6. Florentina Neaţu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Materials preparation was performed by Gheorghita Mitran, formal analysis and investigation by Gheorghita Mitran and Adriana Urda, materials characterization was performed by Mihaela Florea, Octavian Dumitru Pavel, Stefan Neatu, and Florentina Neatu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Gheorghita Mitran and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Gheorghiţa Mitran or Florentina Neaţu.

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Mitran, G., Urdă, A., Pavel, OD. et al. A green way for pyruvic acid synthesis from biomass-derived L-malic acid on tetrahedral versus octahedral cobalt sites/hematite. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 813–824 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02513-1

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