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Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Temperature-programmed Deoxygenation of Acetic Acid on Molybdenum Carbide Catalysts
Published on: February 7, 2017
Enhanced Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Activated Carbon-Supported Metal Catalysts via Rapid Plasma Surface
Yung Wei Hsiao1,2, Darien K Nguyen1,2, Kewei Yu1,2,3
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, 150 Academy Street, Newark, Delaware 19716, United States.
Abstract:
We employ a nonthermal, He/O2 atmospheric plasma as an efficient surface functionalization method of activated carbons. We show that plasma treatment rapidly increases the surface oxygen content from 4.1 to 23.4% on a polymer-based spherical activated carbon in 10 min. Plasma treatment is 3 orders of magnitude faster than acidic oxidation and introduces a diverse range of carbonyl (C═O) and carboxyl (O-C═O) functionalities that were not found with acidic oxidation. The increased oxygen functionalities reduce the particle size of a high 20 wt % loading Cu catalyst by >44% and suppress the formation of large agglomerates. Increased metal dispersion exposes additional active sites and improves the yield of hydrodeoxygenation of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural to 2,5-dimethyl furan, an essential compound for biofuel replacement, by 47%. Surface functionalization via plasma can advance catalysis synthesis while being rapid and sustainable.
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