electronic structure and local atomic environment of Re species on a TiO2 support under catalytic conditions (water, temperature and H2 pres

The removal of oxygen atoms of erythritol by catalytic hydrogenolysis can give access to butanediols and butanetriols (“target polyols”), which are valuable products for plasticizers and pharmaceuticals. This reaction was carried out in liquid phase in batch reactor with water as solvent, at 120 bar H2 and at 240 °C with heterogeneous supported metal catalysts. ReOx/TiO2 is a promising alternative to noble metal catalysts usually employed for this reaction. We recently observed that this catalyst could generate 70% yield of the target polyols. One current challenge is to assess the degree of oxidation of Re during the catalytic reaction. The aim of these experiments will be to characterize the electronic structure and local atomic environment of the Re species under working conditions, i.e. in presence of water (as the solvent), erythritol (as the substrate), at 240 °C and under pressure of hydrogen (120 bars).