Chemocatalysis of sugars to produce lactic acid derivatives on zeolitic imidazolate frameworks

• ZIFs tested in the catalytic conversion of sugars into methyl lactate.
• ZIF-8 is the most active with a methyl lactate yield of 42%.
• ZIF-8 is reused in four catalytic cycles.
• Chemical, textural and morphological effects occurred during catalytic cycles.

Several research studies related to biorefining have focused on developing routes for biomass conversion into biomaterials or platform molecules. In this work, the zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 have been tested as catalysts in the conversion of sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose) into methyl lactate. ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 have the same sodalite type zeolite structure but behaved differently in the sugar conversion in methanol due to the respective presence of Zn and Co in their structures. ZIF-8 has been found to be the most active for the conversion of sugars into methyl lactate (yield 42%) and was reused in four catalytic cycles. The chemical and physical effects caused by these cycles on the catalysts have been studied by several techniques (X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscopy and nitrogen adsorption).

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