Sustainable formation of tricarballylic acid from citric acid over highly stable Pd/Nb2O5·nH2O catalysts

• Nb 2 O 5 · n H proved to be a stable and efficient catalyst for the dehydration of citric acid at mild reaction temperatures. Investigation interaction with surface by 13 C MAS NMR. Synthesis bifunctional Pd/Nb via low-temperature reduction method preserve properties support. Yields tricarballylic exceeding 90% over multiple runs. Recently, sequence was developed production acid, an interesting plasticiser precursor, from using H-Beta zeolite Pd/C catalyst. Although yields 85% were obtained, elicited Al leaching framework, resulting in loss activity. In this work, found performant reaction, strong involvement hydroxyl group observed Next, catalysts synthesized low temperature acidity support; nature Pd phase examined XAS. presence 0.6 wt% catalyst, obtained Finally, also suitable dehydration-hydrogenation other monohydroxy carboxylic acids.