Remarkable Effect of Electric Field Direction on Electrothermally Catalytic Selective Oxidation of (Meth)acrolein over a Heteropolyacid

, respectively, will be promoted in a linear proportion with the intensified electric field, which correspondingly influences the transformative rate and selectivity. Detailed mechanistic and kinetic studies support the effect of electric field direction on aldehyde adsorption, formation, and conversion of intermediate species and acid desorption. Additional theoretical computations confirm that the opposite direction between the electric field and molecular dipole moment of adsorbed aldehyde/acid results in low adsorption and desorption energies, thereby suppressing the undesired overoxidation. In addition, the electric field direction will also influence the orientation of catalytically active Mo-O-V sites in comparison to the feed stream, which consequently affects the contact between the reactants and active sites. This work offers a valuable strategy to control the catalytic selectivity in the oxidation of unsaturated aldehydes to acids under an applied electric field.