InCl3-catalyzed conversion of carbohydrates into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in biphasic system

• NaCl-H2O/THF system was developed for conversion of cellulose into HMF.
• NaCl has the benefit of increasing the partitioning ratio (Morg./Maq.).
• The biphasic system was useful for different feedstocks.

InCl3, a water-compatible Lewis acid, was used for the conversion of microcrystalline cellulose to produce 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) in a H2O/THF biphasic system. Addition of NaCl increased the HMF yield significantly but suppressed the levulinic acid (LA) formation. The HMF yield of 39.7% was obtained in 2 h at 200 °C in the NaCl-H2O/THF catalytic system catalyzed by InCl3. The catalytic system also showed effectiveness to convert other carbohydrates to HMF, including glucose, fructose, sucrose, starch, which demonstrated great potential towards different feedstocks.

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