Clean production of lactic acid by selective carbon-carbon bond cleavage of biomass feedstock over a novel carbon-bismuth oxychloride photocatalyst

Abstract

The use of functional materials such as carbon-bismuth oxyhalides in integrated photorefineries for the clean production of fine chemicals requires restructuring. A facile biomass-assisted solvothermal fabrication of carbon/bismuth oxychloride nanocomposites (C/BiOCl) was achieved at various temperatures. Compared with BiOCl and C/BiOCl-120, C/BiOCl-180 exhibited higher crystallinity, wider visible light absorption, and a faster migration/separation rate of photoinduced carriers. For the selective C–C bond cleavage of biomass-based feedstocks photocatalyzed by C/BiOCl-180, the xylose conversion and lactic acid yield were 100% and 92.5%, respectively. C/BiOCl-180 efficiently converted different biomass-based monosaccharides to lactic acid, and the efficiency of pentoses was higher than that of hexoses. Moreover, lactic acid synthesis was favored by all active radicals including superoxide ion (·O₂⁻), holes (h⁺), hydroxyl radical (·OH), and singlet oxygen (¹O₂), with ·O₂⁻ playing a key role. The fabricated photocatalyst was stable, economical, and recyclable. The use of biomass-derived monosaccharides for the clean production of lactic acid via the C/BiOCl-180 photocatalyst has opened new research horizons for the investigation and application of C–C bond cleavage in biomass-based feedstocks.

Key words： carbon-carbon bond cleavage; biomass reforming; C/BiOCl; lactic acid; photocatalysis

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Foundation of the NSFC-CONICFT Joint Project (Grant No. 51961125207), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22008018), Innovation Support Program for High-level Talents of Dalian (Top and Leading Talents) (Grant No. 201913), and Dalian City Outstanding Talent Project (Grant No. 2019RD13).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-023-2380-2 and is accessible for authorized users.

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