Catalytic Conversion of Glycerol to Lactic Acid Over Metallic Copper Nanoparticles and Reaction Kinetics

Different-sized metallic Cu⁰ nanoparticles were prepared by the wet chemical reduction method with organic modifiers. The small-sized Cu⁰ nanoparticles (Cu(PEG)) prepared by using polyethylene glycol as the organic modifier exhibited high catalytic activity for the hydrothermal conversion of glycerol to lactic acid. When the reaction was carried out with the initial glycerol and NaOH concentrations of 1.0 and 1.1 mol L⁻¹ at 230 °C for 4 h, the lactic acid selectivity reached 91.9% at the glycerol conversion of 98.0%. Over CuPEG (36.9 nm) and Cublank (118.3 nm) catalysts, the reaction activation energies were 76.3 and 86.5 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively.