The synthesis of alkyl lactates or lactic acid from sugars is an important biomass route towards valuable industrial products. Short chain alkyl lactates are considered green solvents, and long chain esters are used in health care and cosmetics. Lactic acid itself is a building block for polyesters and a platform chemical. The current synthesis of lactic acid via fermentation however is energy and time consuming and one ton of gypsum byproduct is formed for every ton of lactic acid. We here report a green chemocatalytic route for the production of lactic acid and its esters direct from common sugars based on a new class of carbon-silica composite (CSM) catalysts with tunable bimodal porosity. This value-added biomass conversion requires multiple catalytic functions and ideally demonstrates the versatility and tunability of this new class of composite materials[1].[1] de Clippel F., Dusselier, M. et al. JACS, 2012,  134 (24), pp 10089�10101

Fast and selective sugar conversion to alkyl lactates and lactic acid with Sn-based bifunctional carbon silica hybrid catalysts

245th National Meeting (2013)

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