| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73330 | Microporous and Mesoporous Materials | 2013 | 9 Pages |
•5-Hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) was prepared from renewable sugars using AlSBA-15 catalysts.•High fructose conversion with very good selectivity to HMF was observed.•A relationship was found between HMF selectivity and moderately strong acidity.•AlSBA-15 was found to be a good recyclable catalyst with DMSO as solvent.
5-Hydroxymethyl furfural is an important platform chemical. It is successfully synthesized from renewable carbohydrates using mesoporous AlSBA-15 catalysts under biphasic conditions. Fine tuning of the catalyst acidity is important to drive the reaction to give good yields of furan compound. Al-SBA-15 catalysts with different Si/Al ratios were prepared and characterized by XRD, 27Al MASNMR, SEM, TEM, N2 sorption, ICP-OES and TPD of ammonia. Results show that part of aluminium is substituted into tetrahedral positions. The catalyst with lower acid site density but medium to strong acidstrength favours selective formation of HMF. Under the optimized conditions, HMF selectivity was as high as 88% at 59 mol% conversion of fructose. Leaching of part of aluminium occurs under hydrothermal conditions, if solvent mixtures containing water are used, while activity can be retained if DMSO is used as solvent.
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