Lewis-acid-promoted catalytic cascade conversion of glycerol to lactic acid by polyoxometalates

Abstract

The polyoxometalates AlPMo12O40 and CrPMo12O40 show high activity and reusablility for cascade conversion of glycerol directly to lactic acid under mild conditions without the addition of base, and can be reused more than 12 times with 90.5% selectivity at 93.7% conversion. AlPMo12O40 is tolerant to crude glycerol from biodiesel production.