Titanium Silicate‐1 Coupled with Sn and Er as Effective Catalysts for the Production of Lactic Acid from Saccharides

Abstract

Biomass‐based saccharide valorization to produce lactic acid (LaA) via chemocatalysis has emerged as a promising approach to meet the substantial demand of the global LaA market, whereas the manufacture of prominent heterogeneous catalyst is still challenging. Herein, we fabricate a series of heterogeneous rare earth catalysts and indicate that Er supported onto titanium silicate‐1 (TS‐1) exhibits better activity than other rare earth catalysts for glucose transformation towards LaA. Remarkably, coupling Sn with Er onto TS‐1 enabled the sharp increment of LaA yield, and 3Sn15Er/TS‐1 catalyst outperformed other heterogeneous rare earth catalysts as reported to date, giving as high as 82.2% and 76.2% yields of LaA from sorbose and glucose, respectively. The catalyst characterization demonstrated the coexistence of Er2O3 and Sn2Er2O7 on 3Sn15Er/TS‐1 catalyst, both of which contributed to LaA production. Sn doping favored the formation of active particles in smaller size and increased the Lewis acidic sites when compared to single 15Er/TS‐1, thereby promoting the isomerization and retro‐aldol reaction of glucose to C3 intermediates. 3Sn15Er/TS‐1 catalyst also showed universal activity for diverse biomass‐based saccharides. This work might give useful insights to explore heterogeneous rare earth catalysts with superior activity in biomass valorization.