Regulating glycerol electrooxidation pathways via catalytic environments
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ UK
- 2State Key Laboratory of Woody Oil Resources Utilization, Northeast Forestry University Harbin 150040 China
- 3School of Engineering, University of Surrey Guildford GU2 7XH UK
- 4Research Center of Renewable Energy, SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing Beijing 100083 China
Abstract
Electrocatalytic transformation of abundant organic molecules to value-added chemicals has emerged as a promising pathway towards building a sustainable chemical industry using renewable electricity. As a byproduct of biodiesel production, glycerol can be oxidized electrochemically to synthesize a variety of value-added C1–C3 chemicals including glyceric acid, lactic acid, dihydroxyacetone, glycolic acid and formic acid etc. However, practical glycerol electrooxidation is challenged by limited product selectivity, insufficient activity and poor catalyst stability, which are deeply rooted in the reaction pathway including adsorption, electrochemical dehydrogenation, chemical transformation of intermediates, C–C bond cleavage and product desorption. This review organizes current mechanistic understanding around these coupled steps and examines how catalytic environments, comprising catalyst composition, interfacial properties and reaction conditions, regulate reaction pathways. We elucidate the critical factors that determine the reaction activity and selectivity towards retained C3 or C1/C2 products. Additionally, we distinguish site blocking caused by strongly adsorbed species or slow desorption from deactivation associated with potential-induced surface oxidation and structural evolution. The active-site engineering, regulation of interfacial structure and reaction conditions are connected to the optimisation of electrochemical performance via reactant activation, controlled intermediate transformation, organic residue removal and surface regeneration. This step-resolved perspective provides mechanistic guidance for designing efficient, selective and durable glycerol electrooxidation systems.
Related
- Tuning the Selectivity of Glycerol Electrooxidation via Catalyst Composition and Operating Conditions
- Depth-resolved operando grazing-incidence diffraction reveals non-equilibrium Cu-Pt alloy restructuring under glycerol electrooxidation
- Catalytic Steam Reforming of Methanol, Ethanol, and Glycerol for Hydrogen Production: A Critical Review of Reaction Chemistry, Catalyst Design, Performance Metrics, and Deactivation
- Role of MicroRNAs in regulating NF-kB Inflammatory pathways During Dental Implant Osseointegration
- Selective catalytic chlorination: key strategic pathways for renewable resources functionalization to transition away from fossil fuels
BibTeX
@article{qi2026regulating,
title = {{Regulating glycerol electrooxidation pathways via catalytic environments}},
author = {Yabo Qi and Hanzhi Ye and Shouxin Liu and Hui Luo and Hongwu Chen and Maria-Magdalena Titirici},
journal = {Chemical Society Reviews},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1039/d6cs00908e},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6cs00908e},
note = {CC BY 3.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Regulating glycerol electrooxidation pathways via catalytic environments
AU - Yabo Qi
AU - Hanzhi Ye
AU - Shouxin Liu
AU - Hui Luo
AU - Hongwu Chen
AU - Maria-Magdalena Titirici
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/05
JO - Chemical Society Reviews
DO - 10.1039/d6cs00908e
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6cs00908e
AB - Electrocatalytic transformation of abundant organic molecules to value-added chemicals has emerged as a promising pathway towards building a sustainable chemical industry using renewable electricity. As a byproduct of biodiesel production, glycerol can be oxidized electrochemically to synthesize a variety of value-added C1–C3 chemicals including glyceric acid, lactic acid, dihydroxyacetone, glycolic acid and formic acid etc. However, practical glycerol electrooxidation is challenged by limited product selectivity, insufficient activity and poor catalyst stability, which are deeply rooted in the reaction pathway including adsorption, electrochemical dehydrogenation, chemical transformation of intermediates, C–C bond cleavage and product desorption. This review organizes current mechanistic understanding around these coupled steps and examines how catalytic environments, comprising catalyst composition, interfacial properties and reaction conditions, regulate reaction pathways. We elucidate the critical factors that determine the reaction activity and selectivity towards retained C3 or C1/C2 products. Additionally, we distinguish site blocking caused by strongly adsorbed species or slow desorption from deactivation associated with potential-induced surface oxidation and structural evolution. The active-site engineering, regulation of interfacial structure and reaction conditions are connected to the optimisation of electrochemical performance via reactant activation, controlled intermediate transformation, organic residue removal and surface regeneration. This step-resolved perspective provides mechanistic guidance for designing efficient, selective and durable glycerol electrooxidation systems.
SN - 0306-0012
SN - 1460-4744
ER -