Recently, the photocatalytic conversion of glucose appeared as an environmentally friendly route to produce valuable molecules. However, the potential of this new route in comparison with the usual hydrothermal catalytic process remained questionable. In this paper, we compared the two routes using three commercial TiO₂ as catalysts in the same reactor. The TiO₂ superficial acidity and basicity were determined by calorimetry and FTIR of CO₂, NH₃ and pyridine adsorption. Relationships between the acid-base properties, the TiO₂ glucose adsorption capacities measured in water and their photocatalytic or hydrothermal performances were proposed: while the photocatalytic performances could be linked to the catalysts’ Lewis acid sites density and their glucose adsorption capacities, the hydrothermal performances were dependent of the catalysts’ basic/acid sites balance. We highlighted that the conversion of glucose over TiO₂ was as efficient with the photocatalytic process at ambient temperature as with the hydrothermal process at 120 °C. This underlines the potential of the photocatalytic route at the lab scale as regards to the milder experimental conditions involved.

最近，葡萄糖的光催化转化似乎是生产有价值的分子的环境友好途径。然而，与常规的水热催化方法相比，这种新路线的潜力仍然值得怀疑。在本文中，我们比较了在同一反应器中使用三种市售TiO ₂作为催化剂的两种路线。TiO _2的表面酸度和碱度通过量热法和CO ₂，NH ₃和吡啶吸附的FTIR测定。酸碱性质，TiO ₂之间的关系提出了在水中测量的葡萄糖吸附能力及其光催化或水热性能：尽管光催化性能可以与催化剂的路易斯酸位密度及其葡萄糖吸附能力相关，但水热性能取决于催化剂的碱性/酸位平衡。我们着重指出，在环境温度下，光催化过程中与在120°C的水热过程一样，葡萄糖在TiO ₂上的转化同样有效。就所涉及的较温和的实验条件而言，这突出了光催化途径在实验室规模上的潜力。