Liquid metal enabled reformation of ethylene glycol

[Display omitted] •Liquid metals offer economic pathways for biomass conversion.•Hydrogen production induced by liquid metals was of high selectivity.•Only mild mechanical agitation is needed for the reformation.•Liquid metals enable structure reformation towards value-added products. Having showcas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2023-03, Vol.460, p.141840, Article 141840
Main Authors:	Cao, Zhenbang, Chi, Yuan, Tang, Junma, Esrafilzadeh, Dorna, Tang, Jianbo, Rahim, Md. Arifur, Thomas, Donald S., Tajik, Mohammad, Donald, William A., Kalantar-Zadeh, Kourosh
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Biomass Catalysis Hydrogen production Post-transitional metals
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Summary:	[Display omitted] •Liquid metals offer economic pathways for biomass conversion.•Hydrogen production induced by liquid metals was of high selectivity.•Only mild mechanical agitation is needed for the reformation.•Liquid metals enable structure reformation towards value-added products. Having showcased intriguing features in a vast range of catalytic applications, liquid metals (LMs) are continuously ticking boxes of pathways that are conventionally only associated with transitional metals. Herein, we report a gallium-ethylene glycol system where gallium is utilized to interact and break down organic bonds. Ethylene glycol is selected as a model organic compound, as it has been extensively studied for the reformation mechanisms and the potential to produce hydrogen gas. With mechanical agitation applied to the LM-based reaction system, we establish an in-situ monitoring approach for the gaseous products and also perform a series of characterizations on the post-reaction mixture. We reveal that the hydrogen gas production from the system is continuous and highly selective. Gaseous alkanes and alkenes are also observed in the output. Our analyses demonstrate that gallium induces structural reformations of ethylene glycol following a complex pathway. The process generates methyl, aldehyde, carbonyl, and other groups. We further reveal the formation of polymer products with repeating methylene groups in the system. The process for reforming ethylene glycol signifies the capability of LMs to efficiently break down organic bonds. As such, this study provides a platform to explore environment-friendly and alternative strategies for hydrogen production and organic transformation toward valuable products.
ISSN:	1385-8947 1873-3212