Sustainable electrosynthesis of valuable chemicals
Image credit: B.J.V. Davies et al., ACS Catalysis (2019).
The build-up of simple base chemicals to value-added products and commodity chemicals is achievable with electrocatalysis. We are interested in different sustainable electrosynthesis reactions such as the electrocarbonylation of methanol to dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as well as propene partial oxidation to important industrial commodity chemicals such as acrolein, acrylic acid and propylene oxide. DMC has a variety of uses and is an alternative to toxic phosgene for carbonylation reactions, such as in the production of plastics (polycarbonate). We are investigating the fundamentals of the reaction by studying different metallic electrode materials based on e.g. Cu, Au, and Pd. The aim of the system is to produce DMC efficiently and selectivity with stable electrocatalyst materials.
Key publications:
B.J.V. Davies, M. Arenz, J. Rossmeisl, M. Escudero-Escribano*, “Electrochemical synthesis of high-value chemicals: detection of key reaction intermediates and products combining gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and in-situ infrared spectroscopy” J. Phys. Chem. C 2019, 123, 12762. Invited for the special issue “Young Scientists”.
B.J.V. Davies, M. Saric, M.C. Figueiredo, N.C. Schjødt, S. Dahl, P.G. Moses, M. Escudero-Escribano*, M. Arenz*, J. Rossmeisl*, “Electrochemically generated copper carbonyl for selective dimethyl carbonate synthesis” ACS Catalysis 2019, 9, 859.