Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Cellulose to Gluconate on Carbon Aerogel Supported Gold Nanoparticles Anode in Alkaline Medium

The development of high efficient and low energy consumption approaches for the transformation of cellulose is of high significance for a sustainable production of high value-added feedstocks. Herein, electrocatalytic oxidation technique was employed for the selective conversion of cellulose to gluconate in alkaline medium by using concentrated HNO3 pretreated carbon aerogel (CA) supported Au nanoparticles as anode. Results show that a high gluconate yield of 67.8% and sum salts yield of 88.9% can be obtained after 18 h of electrolysis. The high conversion of cellulose and high selectivity to gluconate could be attributed to the good dissolution of cellulose in NaOH solution which promotes its hydrolysis, the surface oxidized CA support and Au nanoparticles catalyst which possesses high amount of active sites. Moreover, the bubbled air also plays important role in the enhancement of cellulose electrocatalytic conversion efficiency. Lastly, a probable mechanism for electrocatalytic oxidation of cellulose to gluconate in alkaline medium was also proposed

Double-Layer 3D Macro–Mesoporous Metal Oxide Modified Boron-Doped Diamond with Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance

In this work, a TiO₂/Sb-doped SnO₂ electrode was prepared on the boron-doped diamond (BDD) substrate with double-layer three-dimensional macro–mesoporous (DL3DOM-m) structure, using the polystyrene sphere (PS) vertical deposition method. The as-prepared DL3DOM-m TiO₂/SnO₂/BDD was employed for organic contaminant removal, showing excellent photoelectrocatalytic performance. SEM, XRD and XPS indicated that DL3DOM-m electrode possessed a 3D macroporous layered framework with uniform pore size (about 400 nm), nanosized particles (4.5–5.8 nm), and high electroactive surface area (3-fold more than that of BDD). SA-XRD indicated the backbone of DL3DOM-m electrode had mesoporous structure. It was found that the as-prepared electrode exhibited remarkable electrocatalytic activity, high photocurrent and outstanding absorption capability (91.0 μg cm^–2). Furthermore, bisphenol A (BPA) was completely decomposed after 3 h of reaction applying DL3DOM-m electrode as photoanode, and that on BDD was only 58.9%. It indicated that the modified electrode had great potential to be used in practical water treatment with high photoelectrochemical performance