Sustainable Monomers via Electroconversion of Biomass-Derived Itaconic and Succinic Acid with Cu/Pb Catalysts

• Aubryana Zettlemoyer, Chemistry, University of Delaware

• Emil Hernandez-Pagan, chemistry and biochemistry department, University of Delaware

Thermal conversion is a common approach to valorize biomass-derived organic acids into sustainable monomers that can be cross-linked into polymers. This process, however, is inefficient as it requires high temperatures and pressures with rare, expensive catalysts like Pd and Ru. Electrochemical conversion has reemerged as a more sustainable approach, which could also make the process economically viable. In this work, we investigated the effect of Cu and Pb electrodes morphology on the electrochemical conversion of biomass-derived itaconic and succinic acids. Specifically, we compared bulk foils versus nanoparticles synthesized via colloidal methods. Linear sweep voltammetry using Pb and Cu foils depicted reduction of itaconic acid, and no reduction of succinic acid. The results of electrolysis and qNMR analysis using Pb and Cu foils showed that itaconic acid was converted to its electrochemically known derivative, methylsuccinic acid, rather than the desired sustainable monomer 2-methyl-1,4-butanediol. Additionally, synthesized nanoparticles were shown to have little impurity through XRD analysis. Performing linear sweep voltammetry and electrolysis with Pb and Cu2O nanoparticles drop-casted onto carbon paper showed similar results to the Pb and Cu foils, with the production of methylsuccinic acid from itaconic acid, and no reaction from succinic acid. These studies indicate that regardless of size, Cu and Pb catalysts are not capable of electrochemical conversion of itaconic and succinic acid to their sustainable monomer derivatives. Future work will focus on establishing facet- and composition-performance relationships for the nanoparticle-based electrodes.