Hydrogen Bonding Enhances the Electrochemical Hydrogenation of Benzaldehyde in the Aqueous Phase.

The hydrogenation of benzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol on carbon-supported metals in water, enabled by an external potential, is markedly promoted by polarization of the functional groups. The presence of polar co-adsorbates, such as substituted phenols, enhances the hydrogenation rate of the aldehyde by two effects, that is, polarizing the carbonyl group and increasing the probability of forming a transition state for H addition. These two effects enable a hydrogenation route, in which phenol acts as a conduit for proton addition, with a higher rate than the direct proton transfer from hydronium ions. The fast hydrogenation enabled by the presence of phenol and applied potential overcompensates for the decrease in coverage of benzaldehyde caused by competitive adsorption. A higher acid strength of the co-adsorbate increases the intensity of interactions and the rates of selective carbonyl reduction.

Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation of Biomass-Derived Organics: A Review.

Sustainable energy generation calls for a shift away from centralized, high-temperature, energy-intensive processes to decentralized, low-temperature conversions that can be powered by electricity produced from renewable sources. Electrocatalytic conversion of biomass-derived feedstocks would allow carbon recycling of distributed, energy-poor resources in the absence of sinks and sources of high-grade heat. Selective, efficient electrocatalysts that operate at low temperatures are needed for electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) to upgrade the feedstocks. For effective generation of energy-dense chemicals and fuels, two design criteria must be met: (i) a high H:C ratio via ECH to allow for high-quality fuels and blends and (ii) a lower O:C ratio in the target molecules via electrochemical decarboxylation/deoxygenation to improve the stability of fuels and chemicals. The goal of this review is to determine whether the following questions have been sufficiently answered in the open literature, and if not, what additional information is required:(1)What organic functionalities are accessible for electrocatalytic hydrogenation under a set of reaction conditions? How do substitutions and functionalities impact the activity and selectivity of ECH?(2)What material properties cause an electrocatalyst to be active for ECH? Can general trends in ECH be formulated based on the type of electrocatalyst?(3)What are the impacts of reaction conditions (electrolyte concentration, pH, operating potential) and reactor types?

Kinetics study of solid ammonia borane hydrogen release--modeling and experimental validation for chemical hydrogen storage.

Ammonia borane (AB), NH3BH3, is a promising material for chemical hydrogen storage with 19.6 wt% gravimetric hydrogen capacity of which maximum 16.2 wt% hydrogen can be released via an exothermic thermal decomposition below 200 °C. We have investigated the kinetics of hydrogen release from AB and from an AB-methyl cellulose (AB/MC) composite at temperatures of 160-300 °C using both experiments and modeling. The hydrogen release rate at 300 °C is twice as fast as at 160 °C. The purpose of our study was to show safe hydrogen release without thermal runaway effects and to validate system model kinetics. AB/MC released hydrogen at ∼20 °C lower than neat AB and at a faster release rate in that temperature range. Based on the experimental results, the kinetics equations were revised to better represent the growth and nucleation process during decomposition of AB. We explored two different reactor concepts; auger and fixed bed. The current auger reactor concept turned out to not be appropriate, however, we demonstrated safe self-propagation of the hydrogen release reaction of solid AB/MC in a fixed bed reactor.