DYNAMIC CATALYSIS FOR ELECTRO-AMINATION OF KETO ACIDS INTO AMINO ACIDS

Abstract

Amino acids are widely used in the industry as food additives and animal feeds. We demonstrate in this work that amino acids can be efficiently produced using a novel oscillating-potential electrocatalysis technique. This approach optimises synergy between reactant adsorption, electrochemical reaction, and product diffusion by modulating oscillating potentials, frequencies, and duty cycles, resulting in a substantial 198.5% enhancement in amino acid production rate (using glutamic acid as a model substrate). Optimised values for V low, V high, t low and t high were successfully determined. Moreover, two potential promotion mechanisms were proposed and validated to elucidate the enhancement phenomenon in oscillating electrolysis, offering fresh insights for precise control and effective application of electrosynthesis in future research. This method can be employed in the production of various amino acids from α-keto acid substrates with improved activity and may be further extended to other electrosynthesis processes to boost yield and efficiency.