Selective Oxidation of Raw Glycerol Using Supported AuPd Nanoparticles

Bimetallic AuPd supported on different carbonaceous materials and TiO2 was tested in the liquid phase oxidation of commercial grade and raw glycerol. The latter was directly obtained from the base-catalyzed transesterification of edible rapeseed oil using KOH. The best catalytic results were obtained using activated carbon and nitrogen-functionalized carbon nanofibers as supports. In fact, the catalysts were more active using pure glycerol instead of the one obtained from rapeseed, where strong deactivation phenomena were present. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and TEM were utilized to investigate the possible reasons for the observed loss of activity.