Oxidative dehydrogenation of ethyl lactate over nanocarbon catalysts: Effect of oxygen functionalities and defects

Pyruvic acid and pyruvate derivatives are important chemical intermediates which are normally produced using metal-based catalytic materials that could cause serious environmental problems. In the present work, renewable nanocarbon catalysts are applied in this system, and a solvent free and highly selective oxidative dehydrogenation of ethyl lactate (EL) process is achieved to produce ethyl pyruvate (EP) under mild reaction conditions. Chemical titration results provide direct evidence that ketonic carbonyl groups on nanocarbon are active sites for this reaction. Raman, XPS and model catalyst experimental results have shown that there is a dynamic transformation between defects and oxygen functionalities during the catalytic reactions. The reaction pathway is revealed via kinetic analysis, which may shed light on the rational design of carbon catalysts and their potential catalytic applications in the field of fine chemical productions.