Cellulose is made up of linear polymers of glucose monomers that could be a crucial source for valuable chemicals and sustainable liquid fuels. Cellulose is however, very stable and its conversion to a useful fuel or platform chemical products remains a significant challenge (Kimura et al 2015 Sci. Rep. 5 16266; Xia et al 2016 Nat. Commun. 7 11162). Photocatalysis is a versatile technology which has demonstrated potential for solar driven processes such as water splitting or solar fuels production and has also been applied to the degradation of pollutants in air and water and for the production of useful products from biomass. Here, we focus on the products that are produced from cellulose (a glucose (C6) based polymer) photocatalysis that compliment hydrogen production. Probing the initial steps via UV-TiO2 photocatalysis, we remarkably find that an array of oligosaccharides containing only five (C5) carbon units is initially produced. As the process continues, C6 oligo oligosaccharides grow to dominate. The photocatalytic process is generally not viewed as a controllable synthetic process; however, these findings show, on the contrary that photocatalysis at semiconductor surfaces can achieve novel reaction pathways yielding new products.
Citation
SKILLEN, N., WELGAMAGE, A., ROBERTSON, P.K.J., IRVINE, J.T.S. and LAWTON, L.A. 2023. Photocatalytic conversion of cellulose into C5 oligosaccharides. Journal of physics: energy [online], 6(1), article number 015002. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7655/ad04f1
This article has been published with separate supporting information. This supporting information has been incorporated into a single file on this repository and can be found at the end of the file associated with this output.
The research data underpinning this publication is hosted on University of St Andrews institutional repository and is available from: https://doi.org/10.17630/6f2acc8f-95ed-47d3-b218-71358b06503e
