{"title":"Efficient electrosynthesis of alanine from α-keto acids over self-supported electrocatalyst with superior activity","authors":"Min Xu, Shengbo Zhang, Jiafang Liu, Hui Xu, Yong Jiang, Yunxia Zhang, Guozhong Wang, Haimin Zhang","doi":"10.1039/d4qi02520b","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Currently, electrocatalytic reductive amination of α-keto acids can achieve efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly production of amino acids under environmental conditions, developing efficient electrocatalysts is crucial for electrochemical amino acid synthesis. Herein, we have realized the one-step electrosynthesis of alanine using biomass-derived pyruvic acid (PA) and NH2OH as the raw reactants in Na2SO4 electrolyte over self-supported Cu/Ti electrode. The Cu/Ti self-supported electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance with a high alanine yield of 324 μmol and a favorable Faraday efficiency (FE) of 90.5% at −0.62 V (vs. RHE). The in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) analyses indicated that the electron transfer from Ti substrate to deposited Cu site, and the resulting electron-rich Cu sites are favourable for the adsorption of intermediates and inhibit the competitive reaction of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), enhancing the alanine selectivity. Further in-situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared adsorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) verified the reaction path during the electrochemical amino acid synthesis. Moreover, over 10 kinds of amino acids have been successfully electro-synthesized. Except for alanine, the obtained FEs of over six amino acids are 64.8-74.1%. This strategy opens a sustainable and green way for amino acids synthesis under ambient conditions using renewable energy.","PeriodicalId":79,"journal":{"name":"Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4qi02520b","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC & NUCLEAR","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Currently, electrocatalytic reductive amination of α-keto acids can achieve efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly production of amino acids under environmental conditions, developing efficient electrocatalysts is crucial for electrochemical amino acid synthesis. Herein, we have realized the one-step electrosynthesis of alanine using biomass-derived pyruvic acid (PA) and NH2OH as the raw reactants in Na2SO4 electrolyte over self-supported Cu/Ti electrode. The Cu/Ti self-supported electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance with a high alanine yield of 324 μmol and a favorable Faraday efficiency (FE) of 90.5% at −0.62 V (vs. RHE). The in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) analyses indicated that the electron transfer from Ti substrate to deposited Cu site, and the resulting electron-rich Cu sites are favourable for the adsorption of intermediates and inhibit the competitive reaction of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), enhancing the alanine selectivity. Further in-situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared adsorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) verified the reaction path during the electrochemical amino acid synthesis. Moreover, over 10 kinds of amino acids have been successfully electro-synthesized. Except for alanine, the obtained FEs of over six amino acids are 64.8-74.1%. This strategy opens a sustainable and green way for amino acids synthesis under ambient conditions using renewable energy.