Statistical design analysis of isophorone electrocatalytic hydrogenation: the use of cyclodextrins as inverse phase transfer catalysts

Fundamentals and applications of a 2 3 factorial design were performed for assessing the influence of the cyclodextrin (CyD) type, concentration and encapsulation time on the electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) of isophorone. Electrolysis were carried out using nickel as electrocatalyst and sacrificial anode. A discussion of model validation is presented. The analysis of the results showed that the most significant factors to the conversion rate were the CyD type and concentration, with 3 mmol dm −3 of βCyD giving the best results. The isophorone C=C hydrogenation yield, in the presence of βCyD, was 28 % higher than in its absence, and it is comparable to those obtained by other well-established ECH procedures in terms of hydrogenation yield, selectivity and current efficiency.