(281h) Rational Design of Nanoflower Shaped Bimetallic Ptmn Nanocatalysts for Tartronic Acid Synthesis from Biomass

Tartronic acid is considered as one of the important industrial building blocks for a variety of everyday chemicals such as detergents and plastics, as well as valuable pharmaceutical products. Conventionally, tartronic acid is synthesized from methanol and CO via multiple energy intensive and toxic steps involving cyanide agents. Significant formation of waste by-products and poor yield are major issues plaguing the traditional route. Catalytic oxidation of renewable biomass feedstocks would undoubtedly provide alternative approaches for tartronic acid production.

Several mono and bimetallic nanocatalysts have been proposed for catalytic glycerol oxidation to tartronic acid, which are often obtained from seed or polymer template-based methods and exhibit ordered core-shell and alloy structures. Most of existing nanocatalysts however show limited performances for oxidation activity and tartronic acid selectivity. In this presentation, we describe a new completely disordered morphology of PtMn nanocatalysts. Unique bud- and cauliflower-shaped bimetallic PtMn nanoclusters were synthesized using lattice mismatch induced self-assembly technique without adding polymer stabilizers. The influence of Pt/Mn ratios on the morphologies of bimetallic nanoclusters was studied systematically under various synthetic conditions. Due to the large lattice mismatch between Pt and Mn metals, anisotropic growth bimetallic crystals was obtained with high surface index numbers. The novel bimetallic nanocatalysts display synergistic an eight-fold enhancement in catalytic activity for aqueous phase oxidation of glycerol to tartronic acid compared with monometallic Pt catalysts.