MoOx Nanoparticle Catalysts for d -Glucose Epimerization and Their Electrical Immobilization in a Continuous Flow Reactor
Yexin Zhang, Hui Chen, Yijing Gao, Zihao Yao, Jianguo Wang, Bingsen Zhang, Kan Luo, Shiyu Du, Dang Sheng Su, Jian Zhang · ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 2019
Activity and immobilization of catalysts in liquid-phase reactions seem not to coexist. We report here the excellent activity of an MoO x nanoparticle (NP) catalyst for d -glucose epimerization to d -mannose and the electrical immobilization of NPs in a flow reaction. Prior to that, a green and one-pot method to synthesize the MoO x NPs (3.05 nm) via oxidizing metal Mo by hydrogen peroxide was presented. The NPs overwhelmed the reported catalysts including epimerase for d -glucose epimerization, originating from a strong interaction between the NPs and the reactant that was demonstrated by ex situ and in situ characterizations and theoretical calculations. The electrically charged feature of NPs inspired us to find a convenient way to “immobilize” them inside an activated carbon bed, and thereby, a flow reactor was assembled. The continuous epimerization was run under 24 V for 16 days with an almost unchanged activity, and only 3.2% of total Mo was lost.