Spatial decoupling of bromide-mediated process boosts propylene oxide electrosynthesis

The electrochemical synthesis of propylene oxide is far from practical application due to the limited performance (including activity, stability, and selectivity). In this work, we spatially decouple the bromide-mediated process to avoid direct contact between the anode and propylene, where bromine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2024-04, Vol.15 (1), p.3646-3646, Article 3646
Main Authors: Chi, Mingfang, Ke, Jingwen, Liu, Yan, Wei, Miaojin, Li, Hongliang, Zhao, Jiankang, Zhou, Yuxuan, Gu, Zhenhua, Geng, Zhigang, Zeng, Jie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/299/886
639/638/161/886
639/638/77/886
Bromine
Carbon
Chemical synthesis
Decoupling
Electrochemistry
Electrodes
Electrolysis
Electrolytes
Epoxides
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrogen
multidisciplinary
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Oxidation
Propylene oxide
Raw materials
Reactors
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Side reactions
Stability
Systems stability
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Summary:The electrochemical synthesis of propylene oxide is far from practical application due to the limited performance (including activity, stability, and selectivity). In this work, we spatially decouple the bromide-mediated process to avoid direct contact between the anode and propylene, where bromine is generated at the anode and then transferred into an independent reactor to react with propylene. This strategy effectively prevents the side reactions and eliminates the interference to stability caused by massive alkene input and vigorously stirred electrolytes. As expected, the selectivity for propylene oxide reaches above 99.9% with a remarkable Faradaic efficiency of 91% and stability of 750-h (>30 days). When the electrode area is scaled up to 25 cm 2 , 262 g of pure propylene oxide is obtained after 50-h continuous electrolysis at 6.25 A. These findings demonstrate that the electrochemical bromohydrin route represents a viable alternative for the manufacture of epoxides. The practical application of electrosynthesis of propylene oxide is hindered by limited performance. Here, the authors report a spatial decoupling strategy by utilizing the bromide mediator to link propylene and anode within separated reactors, realizing high-performance electrosynthesis of propylene oxide.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-48070-1