Chemical
decarboxylation of l-lysine is a promising route
for producing cadaverine, which is the key monomer of new polyamide,
polyurethane, and nylon materials. Currently, the wide application
of Ru-based catalysts is restricted by its low efficiency which was
mainly caused by the severe agglomeration of ruthenium nanoparticle.
In this study, manganese (Mn) doped ruthenium oxide catalyst was synthesized
through the wetness impregnation method with Beta zeolite as the candidate
support for efficient decarboxylation of l-lysine to cadaverine.
Structure characterization showed that RuO2 was the main
phase of ruthenium oxide nanoparticles. The prepared Ru–Mn/Beta
catalysts exhibited a high dispersion of ruthenium oxide nanaoparticle
on Beta, which maximized the utilization of active sites. Meanwhile,
abundant oxygen vacancies were generated after Mn doping to balance
the charge of the disturbed long-term periodic structure in the RuO2 crystalline, which greatly facilitated the adsorption and
activation of l-lysine by the capture of carboxylic groups.
A full conversion was obtained with Ru–Mn/Beta, and a selectivity
of cadaverine up to 54% was reached in a short time of 1.5 h. The
cadaverine production rate in Ru–Mn/Beta was 60.8 mg/L/min,
which was almost triple that in Ru/Beta (17.7 mg/L/min). The synergetic
catalysis of metal active sites and oxygen vacancies provides a new
opportunity to design efficient catalyst of decarboxylation of amino
acids.