Electrochemically Tunable Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer in Pd-Catalyzed Benzaldehyde Hydrogenation

Katherine Koh, Udishnu Sanyal, Mal Soon Lee, Guanhua Cheng, Miao Song, Vassiliki Alexandra Glezakou, Yue Liu, Dongsheng Li, Roger Rousseau, Oliver Y. Gutiérrez*, Abhijeet Karkamkar, Miroslaw Derewinski, Johannes A. Lercher

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

Acid functionalization of a carbon support allows to enhance the electrocatalytic activity of Pd to hydrogenate benzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol proportional to the concentration of Brønsted-acid sites. In contrast, the hydrogenation rate is not affected when H2 is used as a reduction equivalent. The different responses to the catalyst properties are shown to be caused by differences in the hydrogenation mechanism between the electrochemical and the H2-induced hydrogenation pathways. The enhancement of electrocatalytic reduction is realized by the participation of support-generated hydronium ions in the proximity of the metal particles.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1501-1505
Number of pages5
JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume59
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Jan 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • acidity of support
  • biomass conversion
  • carbon modification
  • electrocatalytic hydrogenation
  • nanocatalysis

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