TY - JOUR
T1 - Simultaneous Fe3O4 nanoparticle formation and catalyst-driven hydrothermal cellulose degradation
AU - Wotton, Alexander
AU - Yeung, Tracey
AU - Jennepalli, Sreenu
AU - Teh, Zhi Li
AU - Pickford, Russell
AU - Huang, Shujuan
AU - Conibeer, Gavin
AU - Stride, John A.
AU - Patterson, Robert John
N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2021/4/27
Y1 - 2021/4/27
N2 - Breakdown and utilization of cellulose are critical for the bioenergy sector; however, current cellulose-to-energy conversion schemes often consume large quantities of unrecoverable chemicals, or are expensive, due to the need for enzymes or high temperatures. In this paper, we demonstrate a new method for converting cellulose into soluble compounds using a mixture of Fe2+ and Fe3+ as catalytic centers for the breakdown, yielding Fe3O4 nanoparticles during the hydrothermal process. Iron precursors transformed more than 61% of microcrystalline cellulose into solutes, with the composition of the solute changing with the initial Fe3+ concentration. The primary products of the breakdown of cellulose were a range of aldaric acids with different molecular weights. The nanoparticles have concentration-dependent tuneable sizes between 6.7 and 15.8 nm in diameter. The production of value-added nanomaterials at low temperatures improves upon the economics of traditional cellulose-to-energy conversion schemes with the precursor value increasing rather than deteriorating over time. [Graphic presents]
AB - Breakdown and utilization of cellulose are critical for the bioenergy sector; however, current cellulose-to-energy conversion schemes often consume large quantities of unrecoverable chemicals, or are expensive, due to the need for enzymes or high temperatures. In this paper, we demonstrate a new method for converting cellulose into soluble compounds using a mixture of Fe2+ and Fe3+ as catalytic centers for the breakdown, yielding Fe3O4 nanoparticles during the hydrothermal process. Iron precursors transformed more than 61% of microcrystalline cellulose into solutes, with the composition of the solute changing with the initial Fe3+ concentration. The primary products of the breakdown of cellulose were a range of aldaric acids with different molecular weights. The nanoparticles have concentration-dependent tuneable sizes between 6.7 and 15.8 nm in diameter. The production of value-added nanomaterials at low temperatures improves upon the economics of traditional cellulose-to-energy conversion schemes with the precursor value increasing rather than deteriorating over time. [Graphic presents]
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105753808&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsomega.1c00393
DO - 10.1021/acsomega.1c00393
M3 - Article
C2 - 34056233
AN - SCOPUS:85105753808
SN - 2470-1343
VL - 6
SP - 10790
EP - 10800
JO - ACS Omega
JF - ACS Omega
IS - 16
ER -