Selective oxidation of heterocyclic alcohols using carbon based modified electrodes

Abstract

Electro-organic synthesis has achieved great significance over the conventional synthesis routes due to its diverse features which includes the in-situ generation of reagents, replacement of harmful redox reagents, rapid response, and low energy consumption. The choice of reactants (heterocyclic alcohols) for the electrochemical oxidation is solely based on the applications of its corresponding aldehydes. Furthermore, 2-thiophene methanol, piperonyl alcohol, 5-methyl furfuryl alcohol and Tetrahydro furfuryl alcohol have been chosen as reactants of interest as their corresponding aldehydes 2-thiophene carboxaldehyde, piperonal, 5-methyl furfural and Tetrahydro furfural possess various synthetic applications such as production of newlinedyestuffs, perfumes, veterinary products, agrochemicals and pharmaceutical drugs. newlineCarbon based electrodes provide a versatile platform for catalysis reactions. newlineElectrocatalysts for the selective oxidation of heterocyclic alcohols are designed on newlineemploying diverse modifications on the carbon fiber paper (CFP) electrode. Such newlinemodifications have attracted researchers due to their exceptional selectivity, stability, newlineelectrical conductivity and lower charge transfer resistance. The modifications newlineemployed in the current study include immobilized laccase-based materials and newlinegraphitic carbon nitride-based composites. newlineThe physico-chemical properties of the fabricated electrodes were studied using newlinedifferent characterization techniques like Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS), X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Optical Profilometry (OP) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Electrochemical investigations were performed using Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Chronoamperometry (CA) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). Optimization of experimental conditions such as effect of pH and scan rate to understand the reaction mechanism were studied in detail.