title: Waste-Glycerol-Directed Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica and Carbon with Superior Performance in Room-Temperature Hydrogen Production from Formic Acid.
abstract: The development of easier, cheaper, and more ecofriendly synthetic methods for mesoporous materials remains a challenging topic to commercialize them, and the transformation of waste glycerol, as a biodiesel byproduct, into something useful and salable is one of the pending issues to be resolved. Here we first report that mesoporous silica (KIE-6) and carbon (KIE-7) can be simultaneously synthesized by using cheap and ecofriendly crude-waste-glycerol of biodiesel with or without glycerol purification, and we demonstrated the excellent performance of the mesoporous material as a catalyst support for formic acid decomposition. As a result, Pd-MnOx catalysts supported on NH2-functionalized KIE-6 showed the highest catalytic activity (TOF: 540.6 h(-1)) ever reported for room-temperature formic acid decomposition without additives. Moreover, we conducted life-cycle assessment (LCA) from biomass cultivation through biodiesel production to KIE-6 and KIE-7 preparation, and it was confirmed that CO2 emission during synthesis of KIE-6 and KIE-7 could be reduced by 87.1% and 85.7%, respectively. We believe that our study suggested more ecofriendly and industry-friendly approaches for preparation of mesoporous materials, and utilization of waste glycerol.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Dong-Wook
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Ho
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Clean Fuel Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji Chan
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chun-Boo
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Duckkyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jin-Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Advanced Materials and Devices Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), 152 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong-Soo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Park