Bioethanol Transformations Over Active Surface Sites Generated on Carbon Nanotubes or Carbon Nanofibers Materials

Catalytic bioethanol transformations over carbon nanomaterials (nanofibers and nanotubes) have been evaluated at atmospheric pressure and in the temperature range of 473-773 K. The pristine carbon materials were compared with these samples after surface modification by introducing sulfonic groups. The specific activity for ethanol dehydrogenation, yielding acetaldehyde, increases with the surface graphitization degree for these materials. This suggests that some basic sites can be related with specific surface graphitic structures or with the conjugated basic sites produced after removing acidic oxygen surface groups. Concerning the dehydration reaction over sulfonated samples, it is observed that catalytic activities are related with the amount of incorporated sulfur species, as detected by the evolution of SO 2 in the Temperature programmed Desorption (TPD) as well as by the analysis of sulfur by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS).