Zn Mod­i­fi­ca­tion of Pt(111) for the Hydrodeoxy­gena­tion of Aldoses

2014 Spring Symposium

 
Jesse R. McManus, Eddie Martono, & John M. Vohs
Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia
 
Abstract — The high oxy­gen con­tent and mul­ti­ple func­tion­al groups in bio­mass-derived plat­form mol­e­cules like glu­cose pose an inter­est­ing reac­tion engi­neer­ing chal­lenge for the con­ver­sion of bio­mass to val­ue-added fuels and chem­i­cals. The key to under­stand­ing the reac­tion path­ways nec­es­sary for these con­ver­sions lies in elu­ci­dat­ing reac­tion active sites on cat­alyt­i­cal­ly rel­e­vant sur­faces and iden­ti­fy­ing the role of each func­tion­al­i­ty exhib­it­ed by the feed mol­e­cule in the reac­tion mech­a­nism. In this study, tem­per­a­ture pro­grammed des­orp­tion (TPD) and high res­o­lu­tion elec­tron ener­gy loss (HREEL) spec­troscopy are uti­lized to probe the reac­tion path­way of the bio­mass-rel­e­vant glu­cose mol­e­cule, as well as mod­el aldos­es glyc­er­alde­hyde and gly­co­lalde­hyde, and sim­ple alde­hyde acetalde­hyde on a Pt cat­a­lyst sur­face. The effects of mod­i­fi­ca­tion of the Pt(111) sur­face with oxyphilic Zn adatoms are explored with regard to hydrodeoxy­gena­tion chem­istry, and reac­tion mech­a­nisms are pro­posed. With all mol­e­cules stud­ied, it was found that Zn addi­tion to Pt(111) result­ed in an increase in the bar­ri­er for C-H and C-C scis­sion, as well as notable activ­i­ty for deoxy­gena­tion at the alde­hyde oxy­gen as a func­tion of polyal­co­hol con­tent. These results help elu­ci­date the role of mul­ti­ple alco­hol func­tion­al­i­ties in bio­mass-derived oxy­genates and high­light the poten­tial of using alloy effects to mod­i­fy cat­alyt­ic chem­istry.
 
Jess_R_McManusBiog­ra­phy — Dr. Jesse R. McManus recent­ly com­plet­ed his PhD research in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia under the tute­lage of Prof. John M. Vohs, suc­cess­ful­ly defend­ing his the­sis “Reac­tion Char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of Bio­mass-Derived Oxy­genates on Noble Met­al Cat­a­lysts”. In 2009, he received his BSE in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing at Tulane Uni­ver­si­ty, grad­u­at­ing Sum­ma Cum Laude with an Hon­ors dis­tinc­tion. Dur­ing his stud­ies, Dr. McManus has received sev­er­al awards for his aca­d­e­m­ic accom­plish­ments, includ­ing the Tulane-Richards Schol­ar­ship for Aca­d­e­m­ic Excel­lence, The R.C. Reed Schol­ar Award for aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment and promise for the future, and the Doc­tor­al Franklin Schol­ar Award for stu­dents with high promise to suc­ceed in cre­ative research at the cut­ting edge of their dis­ci­pline. In the spring, Dr. McManus plans to depart from aca­d­e­m­ic research and pur­sue a career in the ener­gy sec­tor with a major ener­gy com­pa­ny.