Converting
glucose electrochemically to its valuable derivatives,
gluconic and glucaric acids, is a promising process for the utilization
of renewable carbon sources. Understanding the reaction pathway to
form glucaric acid from glucose is key to performing the process efficiently.
In this study, we investigate the influence of mass transport as well
as electrode potential on the product distribution in glucose, gluconic
acid, and glucuronic acid oxidation on a gold disk in an RDE setup.
We find glucose and glucuronic acid to be easily oxidized, while the
oxidation of gluconic acid is kinetically limited. Combining DFT calculations
and the experimental results, we show that on gold, the oxidation
of aldehyde groups proceeds readily, while the oxidation of hydroxyl
groups is challenging and occurs indiscriminately on C atoms in glucose
and its derivatives. Additionally, the DFT calculations present a
reaction pathway that can explain the absence of glucuronic acid in
the conducted experiments.