Efficient Electrosynthesis of Adipic Acid via a Cascade Reaction at Pickering Droplet Interfaces

作者：Xiaotian Liu, Yuxuan Lu, Yuxuan Lu, Tianyang Liu, Yulin Cui, Yu-Cheng Huang, Chunming Yang, Feifan Zhang, Ziang Gao, Yawei Li, Haitao Li, Yuanbei Yang, Zhibin Du, Ying‐Rui Lu, Ying‐Rui Lu, Hengquan Yang · 发表于：Journal of the American Chemical Society · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/jacs.5c18948 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization、Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion、Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation

Adipic acid is currently produced via a nitric acid oxidation route, leading to substantial NO x and CO 2 emissions. The sustainable adipic acid production powered by renewable electricity is highly desirable. Herein, we report an innovative strategy for efficient electrosynthesis of adipic acid by cascading a bromide-assisted olefin epoxidation and a subsequent epoxide oxidation on a Pickering-droplet-integrated electrode under ambient conditions. The oil–water interface provided by Pickering emulsion droplets on the electrode was found to be capable of stabilizing bromine radicals for facilitating the epoxidation process and simultaneously weakening the interfacial hydrogen-bonding network to suppress the competitive oxygen evolution reaction, which are crucial to activate the relatively inert C═C bonds and enhance the selectivity of epoxide oxidation. With this strategy, we achieved efficient continuous-flow adipic acid electrosynthesis with high FEs (∼80%), high selectivity (∼95%), long-term operational stability (1000 h), and scaling capability to achieve a 100 g scale synthesis at industrially relevant current densities (100 mA cm –2 ), using crude cyclohexene from the benzene hydrogenation as feedstock.