Fast degradation of phthalate acid esters by polyoxometalate nanocatalysts through adsorption, esterolysis and oxidation

A novel route was created to facilitate the degradation of diethyl phthalate (DEP) upon micellar polyoxometalate (POM) catalysts and H₂O₂. The best catalytic activity was obtained using [C₁₆H₃₃N(CH₃)₃]H₄PMo₁₀V₂O₄₀ (N-hexadecyl-N,N,N-trimethylammonium tetrahydrogen decamolybdo-divanadophosphate, abbreviated as (CTA)H₄PMoV) with 90.2% degradation efficiency within 30 min, while the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency were about 77.7% and 74.3% within 40 min. The highest efficiency was attributed to the concentration of DEP by amphiphilic POM catalyst, coupling with its strong Brønsted acidity and higher redox potential to catalyze esterolysis and oxidation of DEP. This allowed the phthalate acid esters (PAEs) with long carbon chains in super low concentration of 0.03 μM to be efficiently decomposed. The above synergistic effects explored DEP being degraded into ethanol, lactic acid and CO₂, which were non-toxic to the water surroundings. And the reaction activation energy (Ea) of 12.49 kJ/mol was obtained upon the degradation of DEP with (CTA)H₄PMoV followed first-order kinetics. Meanwhile, (CTA)H₄PMoV acted as a heterogeneous catalyst, which showed long duration and higher stability with only 3.7% loss amount during ten recycles.

Efficient mineralization of phenol by a temperature-responsive polyoxometalate catalyst under wet peroxide oxidation at lower temperatures

Herein, a temperature-responsive polyoxometalate (POM) catalyst [C₁₆H₃₃(CH₃)₃N]₃[PO₄{WO(O₂)₂}₄]/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (abbreviated as (C₁₆PW(O₂)₂/PNIPAM) was prepared and used in the catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO) of phenol under mild conditions.

Hetropolyacid-Catalyzed Oxidation of Glycerol into Lactic Acid under Mild Base-Free Conditions

Lactic acid (LA) is a versatile platform molecule owing to the opportunity to transform this compound into useful chemicals and materials. Therefore, efficient production of LA based on inexpensive renewable feedstocks is of utmost importance for insuring its market availability. Herein, we report the efficient conversion of glycerol into LA catalyzed by heteropolyacids (HPAs) under mild base-free conditions. The catalytic performance of molecular HPAs appears to correlate with their redox potential and Brønsted acidity. Namely, H3 PMo(12)O(40) (HPMo) exhibits the best selectivity towards LA (90 %) with 88 % conversion of glycerol. Loading of HPMo onto a carbon support (HPMo/C) further improves LA productivity resulting in 94 % selectivity at 98 % conversion under optimized reaction conditions. The reaction takes place through the formation of dihydroxyacetone/glyceraldehyde and pyruvaldehyde as intermediates. No leaching of HPMo was observed under the applied reaction conditions and HPMo/C could be recycled 5 times without significant loss of activity.