摘要
Liquid-phase acrylic acid hydration over solid-phase catalysts is a key reaction for the industrial productionof 3-hydroxypropionic acid. However, the relevant literature primarily focuses on the experimental aspects of catalystscreening and exploring reaction conditions, with few accurate descriptions of the reaction kinetics and determination ofthe reaction mechanism. Here, we combined kinetics experiments and theoretical calculations to elucidate the kinetics andmechanism of acrylic acid hydration on a resin catalyst. The pseudo-homogeneous model, and Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Haugen-Watson and Elie-Riedel (ER) heterogeneous models were used to explain the experimental kinetics data. TheER model can explain the experimental data very well, suggesting strong adsorption of acrylic acid on the surface of theresin catalyst. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations show that the hydration follows a stepwise, rather than aconcerted, reaction pathway. The present study provides theoretical insights into the reaction mechanism and kinetics, fillingthe gap in our understanding of the reaction on a fundamental level.
