Weakened peroxidation and promoted selective oxidative cleavage of lignin C-O bonds via pulse-driven electrocatalysis
Wu K. Wang Y. Zeng Q. Huang M. Wang M. Zhang Y. Bakytkarim Y. Yang J.
15 March 2026Elsevier B.V.
Chemical Engineering Journal
2026#532
Effectively circumventing peroxidation and non-selective oxidation remain formidable challenges in the electrochemical oxidative depolymerization of lignin. Herein, a novel pulsed potential electrolysis (PPE) strategy was developed and employed to selectively cleave the Cβ–O bonds in phenoxy ethylbenzene, which possess higher bond dissociation energy. This approach achieved an aromatic yield of 37.2% with 97.3% selectivity toward phenethyl alcohol. In sharp contrast, under constant potential electrolysis (CPE) conditions at an even higher optimized potential, only 58% of the substrate was converted, yielding merely 0.6% phenethyl alcohol. Analysis of C-O bond cleavage process revealed that PPE outperforms CPE in three critical aspects of alkyl aromatic radical intermediate control, cathodic action, and mitigate anodic polarization phenomenon. Furthermore, PPE effectively depolymerizes a series of lignin models featuring diverse C-O bonds, including α–O–4 and 4–O–5 bonds. As anticipated this strategy is also applicable to organosolv lignin systems. Compared with the classical CPE system, the lignin conversion rate and aromatic products yield were enhanced by 1.9-fold and 3.4-fold, respectively. As the consequence, this work by PPE establishes a universal and robust strategy to overcome the inherent peroxidation drawback in lignin electrochemical oxidation using commercial Pt electrodes, enabling more efficient and selective cleavage of lignin C-O bonds.
C–O bond selective cleavage , Electrochemical oxidation , Lignin , Peroxidation , Pulse-electrolysis
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School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangdong, Guangzhou, 510640, China
School of Public Health, Guangdong Medical University, Guangdong, Dongguan, 523808, China
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Geography, Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
School of Public Health
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Geography
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026