Oxygen Affinity of Transition Metal Cations: A Coherent Descriptor in Catalytic Oxygenate Transformations

This work reports a complementary descriptor to acidity for metal cations, oxygen affinity, to scale the interaction strength of metal cations with oxygenate groups. A method for measuring oxygen affinity is developed in alkyl methylimidazolium chloride solvents using in-situ far infrared (FIR) spectroscopy. The relative oxygen affinity values of metal cations in metal chlorides with model compounds including cyclopentanol (for alcohols), cyclohexanone (for ketones), ethylene glycol diethyl ether (for ethers), and H2O are measured from the dissociation kinetics of the metal-oxygenate complexes. The concentrations of metal-chloride and metal-oxygenate complexes are determined during evaporative removal of oxygenate molecules according to the FIR absorbance of metal-Cl bonds. The oxygen affinity values are shown to reasonably account for the catalytic performances of metal cations in furfural-acetone condensation and glucose isomerization reactions. The oxygen affinity descriptor could be potentially exploited as an intrinsic property of metal cations broadly in metal chlorides and metal oxides.

Magnesium Impregnated on NaX Zeolite Synthesized from Cogon Grass Silica for Fast Production of Fructose via Microwave-Assisted Catalytic Glucose Isomerization

Fructose is a crucial intermediate in the production of several chemical platforms. Fructose is mainly produced from glucose isomerization either through immobilized enzymes or heterogeneous catalysts using a conventional heating source, and this is time-consuming. Thus, this work discloses a fast production of fructose via microwave-assisted catalytic glucose isomerization using Mg catalysts supported on NaX zeolite from cogon grass silica. The catalysts were prepared by the impregnation of magnesium nitrate solution and subsequently transformed into MgO on NaX by calcination. The effect of 3, 6 and 9 wt.% Mg content on NaX on the performance of glucose isomerized to fructose was tested at 90 °C for 15 min. The best catalyst was selected for studying the effect of reaction times of 5, 15, 30 and 60 min. Results from X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 sorption and CO2 temperature-programmed desorption (CO2-TPD) suggested that crystallinity, surface area and micropore volume decrease but basicity increases with Mg content. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) result confirmed the presence of mixed phases of MgO and Mg2CO3 in all catalysts. The glucose conversion enhanced with the Mg loading but the fructose yield gave the highest value with Mg of 6 wt.%, probably due to the tuning of high active sites and surface area. The greatest fructose selectivity and yield (71.9% and 25.8%) were obtained within 15 min by microwave-assisted catalytic reaction, shorter than the reported value in the literature, indicating a suitable reaction time. Mg (6 wt.%)/NaX catalyst preserves the original catalytic performance up to three cycles, indicating that it is a promising catalyst for fructose production.