Magnesium Hydrogen Phosphate: An Efficient Catalyst for Acrylic Acid Production from Biorenewable Lactic Acid

• Published in: Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology Vol. 21; no. 3; p. 1537
• Main Authors: Nekkala, Nagaraju, Balla, Putrakumar, Ginjupalli, Srinivasarao, Mitta, Harisekher, Hussain, S K, Ponnala, Bhanuchander, Chary, K V R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.03.2021
• ISSN: 1533-4899
• DOI: 10.1166/jnn.2021.19019

A series of Magnesium hydrogen phosphate (MgHP) catalysts with different magnesium to phosphorous (Mg/P) mole ratios at varying calcination temperatures has been synthesised, bearing in mind the effectiveness as well as the stability of MgHP to catalyse acrylic acid (AA) production from biorenewable lactic acid (LA), a synthetic process applicable to biomass conversion. The physicochemical properties of the MgHP catalysts have been thoroughly characterised and the formation of Mg(NH₄)PO₄, MgHPO₄ and Mg₂P₂O with different structural and acidic properties have been reported. The high catalytic performance of MgHP catalysts with high AA yields (100% conversion and 85% selectivity) at high space velocities (WHSV = 3.13 h ) have been achieved at 360 °C. NH₃-Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and pyridine FTIR have shown that the effectiveness of a catalyst is accounted for not primarily by the actual strength of acidic sites, but is due to the presence of Lewis acidic sites compared to Bronsted sites.