3.1. Characterization of catalysts
Fig.1 shows the XRD patterns of fresh and acid-activated vermiculite catalysts. According to Fig. 1, the typical diffraction peaks of vermiculite at 2θ = 6.0° is corresponding to (002) crystal plane[17, 18, 24, 33]. The diffraction peaks at 2θ = 20.8 and 26.6° are ascribed to the impurities (quartz). The peak at 2θ = 10.5° belongs to Ferrogedrite (JCPDS#31-0617). The typical diffraction peaks of Vrm were almost disappeared after acid treatment, presenting that the crystal structure of Vrm was destroyed[34]. After regeneration, the typical diffraction of Vrm was disappeared. This result presented that the crystal structure of Vrm could be easily destroyed with the acid treatment and the crystal structure could not be recovered by calcination[16, 25, 34].
Fig.2 presents FTIR spectra of raw and acid-activated vermiculite catalysts. From Fig.2, the band observed at 3445 cm-1 is due to the adsorbed water on Vrm. The stretching vibration of -OH group appears at 3695 cm−1, which is coordinated to the octahedral layer[35, 36]. The band at 1635 cm-1 is attributed to the bending vibration of water. The peak at 1007 cm-1 corresponds to the stretching vibration of Si-O-Si and Si-O-Al and the peak at 463 cm-1 is the Si-O-Mg bending vibration. Peaks at 795 cm-1 and 694 cm-1 are ascribed to the symmetric stretching vibration peak of amorphous silica (Si-O-Si) or Si-O-Al[24, 25]. For the acid-activated Vrm, the shoulder peak at 3695 cm-1 and the peak at 463 cm-1 both became stronger. It might be that the layer structure of Vrm was destroyed and the octahedral layer was exposed. Moreover, the peak at 1007 cm-1 was shifted to 1085 cm-1, which should be attributed to the leaching of Al ions in the tetrahedral layer[17]. For the regenerated sample, there existed two strong bands at 3695 and 3620 cm-1 , which are ascribed to -OH groups coordinated to the octahedral layer and Si-OH groups. It also presented that the octahedral layer was exposed and there had more surface -OH groups after regeneration. Therefore, from FTIR results, it also showed that the layered structure of Vrm was destroyed after acid treatment and there appeared more -OH groups on the surface of Vrm.
The N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms of the fresh and acid-activated vermiculite are presented in Fig.3. As shown in Fig.3, both the adsorption-desorption isotherms overlapped completely at low relative pressures, but a distinct hysteresis loop appeared at high relative pressures, which are similar to type H3 and typical of agglomerates of plate-like particles with slit-shaped pores[37]. After the acid treatment, the specific surface area of Vrm increased significantly from 34.78 m2/g to 67.09 m2/g, which might be that acid leaching destroyed the crystal structure of Vrm and the micropores formed on Vrm layer.
3.2. Catalytic properties
3.2.1. Effect of vermiculite in cellulose hydrolysis
Table 1. The catalytic results of vermiculite and others reported catalysts for the cellulose hydrolysis. a
Entry
|
Catalysts
|
Content of acidic sites (mmol·g−1)
|
TRS yield (%)
|
References
|
1
|
Mt
|
0.012
|
7.9
|
38
|
2
|
HMt
|
0.32
|
14.4
|
38
|
3
|
Mt-SO3H
|
0.532
|
24.6
|
38
|
4
|
AC-SO3H
|
0.72
|
21.0
|
10
|
5
|
0.3-SZ-Mt
|
0.03
|
30.1
|
30
|
6
|
Mt-1L
|
0.056
|
35.7
|
38
|
7
|
Vrm
|
0.05
|
17.8
|
This work
|
8
|
Vrm-HS5
|
0.10
|
25.9
|
9
|
Vrm-HS15
|
0.11
|
28.5
|
10
|
Vrm-HS25
|
0.13
|
33.7
|
11
|
Vrm-HS35
|
0.19
|
40.1
|
12
|
Vrm-HS40
|
0.17
|
38.6
|
13
|
Vrm-HC35
|
0.13
|
37.4
|
14
|
Vrm-HP35
|
0.13
|
34.6
|
a Reaction conditions: microcrystalline cellulose: 0.5 g, catalyst: 0.09 g, water: 8 mL, temperature: 205 ℃.
Table 1 shows the catalytic results of vermiculite and others reported catalysts for the cellulose hydrolysis in water. From Table 1, the fresh Mt showed the low acidic content and the TRS yield was also lowest. It was interesting although the acid-activated Mt (entry 2) and -SO3H grafted solid catalysts (entry 3 and entry 4) showed the higher content of acidic sites, TRS yield was low. It presented that the content of acidic sites wasn't the critical factor for the hydrolysis of cellulose. It was interesting although the TRS yield was relatively low on the fresh Vrm catalyst (entry 7), some modified Vrm catalysts (entry 8 to entry 14) showed the higher TRS yield than some clay based catalyst (entry 5 and entry 6). Moreover, the fresh Vrm showed the less content of acidic sites, but the TRS yield of 17.8% was higher than that of the acid-activated Mt. It presented that Vrm mineral was the effective catalyst for the hydrolysis of cellulose.
It had been reported that Mt and Vrm had the similar structure, but Vrm had the higher layer charge density than that of Mt. Moreover, the isomorphic substitution of Vrm mainly occurs in the tetrahedron, while the Mt mainly occurs in the octahedron. It presented that the negative charge of Vrm mainly dispersed on the surface and there had the higher electrostatic field in the layer of Vrm than that of Mt. So the high electrostatic field in the layer of Vrm could make the C-O bonds highly polarized and lead to the β-1,4 glycosidic bonds easily broken. In addition, for the acid-activated Vrm, the content of acidic sites was higher than that of Vrm, which presented that there existed more Brönsted acid sites. So under the synergistic effect of strongly electrostatic interaction and Brönsted acid, the acid-activated Vrm showed the higher TRS yields than that of raw Vrm and other clay minerals, and the highest TRS yield of 40.1% was obtained on the Vrm treated by 35% H2SO4 (entry 11). This result presented that the interaction of electrostatic polarization had important effect on the conversion of cellulose. According to the structure characteristics of Vrm, the mechanism of cellulose hydrolysis on the acid-activated Vrm was suggested in Fig.4.
3.2.2. Effect of reaction conditions and reuse of acid-activated Vrm in cellulose hydrolysis
It is well known that reducing sugars can be further converted into other products such as levulinic acid, formic acid, or coke. Therefore, the optimal reaction conditions on the hydrolysis of cellulose was further studied, and the results are shown in Fig.5. From Fig.5, the optimal reaction time and reaction temperature was 3.5 h and 478 K. This might be that by-products were easily formed within 3.5 h, and cellulose or raw cellulose was gradually carbonized above 478 K [2, 6, 9]. As the catalyst/cellulose mass ratio was up to 0.18, the highest TRS yield was obtained. The excess catalyst in the reaction were not conducive to the formation of reducing sugars and the redundant acid sites might be led to the transformation of the RS to other byproducts[8]. In addition, the agglomeration of particles could also lead to a decrease in catalytic activity at high catalyst levels. It is well known that water is a key factor in the hydrolysis of cellulose, and the hydrogen protons produced by water promote the hydrolysis reaction[7, 9]. It was obvious that for a water/cellulose mass ratio exceeding 16, the yield of TRS decreased. The concentration of hydrogen protons might be too high in a short time, which would cause the reducing sugars produced to be converted into other by-products or coke. The TRS yield gradually decreased. Therefore, the highest TRS yield of 40.1% could be obtained on the acid-activated vermiculite under the reaction temperature of 478 K, reaction time of 3.5 h, mass ratio of catalyst to cellulose of 0.18 and mass ratio of water to cellulose of 16. The reusability of the recycled catalyst is shown in Fig.6. The TRS yield of each cycle was similar. After three time reuse, the TRS yield decreased from 40.1% to 36.2%, presenting that the acid-treated Vrm was the stable catalyst for the efficient depolymerization of cellulose.