In-situ generation and stabilization of gas bubbles for multiphase catalysis

Zhengsong Hu; Yiquan Chen; Jie Xu; Jiajia Hao; Haifeng Bao; Xiufang Li; Renchuan You; Ze Xiong; Hengquan Yang; Haolan Xu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.12.069

In-situ generation and stabilization of gas bubbles for multiphase catalysis

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Dec 11;683(Pt 1):300-311. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.12.069. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhengsong Hu¹, Yiquan Chen¹, Jie Xu², Jiajia Hao¹, Haifeng Bao¹, Xiufang Li¹, Renchuan You³, Ze Xiong⁴, Hengquan Yang⁵, Haolan Xu⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Key Laboratory for New Textile Materials and Applications of Hubei Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.
² State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Key Laboratory for New Textile Materials and Applications of Hubei Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China. Electronic address: xuj@wtu.edu.cn.
³ School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.
⁴ Wireless and Smart Bioelectronics Lab, School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
⁵ Shanxi Key Laboratory of Coal-based Value-added Chemicals Green Catalysis Synthesis, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China. Electronic address: hqyang@sxu.edu.cn.
⁶ Future Industries Institute, UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, SA 5095, Australia. Electronic address: haolan.xu@unisa.edu.au.

PMID: 39681019
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.12.069

Abstract

Introducing stable gas bubbles in liquid is important for the industrial synthesis of chemicals and intermediates via multiphase reactions because of limited solubility of gaseous reactants such as H₂ and O₂. Herein, a bubble-stabilized system is constructed via in-situ nucleation of bubbles at the surfaces of various polymer nanofibers that circumvents the repulsive interactions between gas-liquid interfaces and nanofibers. During bubble growth processes, nanofibers are self-assembled and interwoven to build spatial nanofiber network surrounding bubbles, firmly trapping bubbles in the liquid phase. Surprisingly, the immobilization of bubbles in liquid can be sustained up to 20 h. These trapped bubbles can serve as gas storage vessels to remarkably boost the multiphase reactions because of the adequate gas-liquid-solid contact sites as demonstrated by the multiphase nitroarenes reduction in contrast to the bubble-free system. Furthermore, the immobilized bubbles are almost completely utilized (98.9 %) in multiphase reactions. This work provides an enlightenment for capturing and storing bubbles in liquid towards industrial multiphase reactions.

Keywords: Bubbles; Gas storage; In-situ generation; Multiphase catalysis; Stabilization.