Design and synthesis of effective heterogeneous catalysts of desired functionalities for upgrading biomass derived carbohydrates into furfurals platform chemicals have received a significant attention in recent years. The effectiveness of the relevant conversion processes, in terms of yields and selectivity of furfurals, depend on several intrinsic properties of the catalysts such as porosity, nature and density of acid sites, and accessibility of surface active sites. To demonstrate the dependence of such catalytic properties for sugars dehydration, we have synthesized materials of varying pore sizes and acid densities. These materials were characterized by XRD, FTIR spectroscopy, NH3 temperature programmed desorption, pyridine FTIR spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron spectroscopy, N2-sorption and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The results demonstrated higher reactivity for catalysts containing more accessible surface Bronsted and Lewis acid sites as well as higher pore volume, giving maximum 80 and 62 mol% 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from fructose and glucose, respectively, in biphasic solvent systems. The reactivity-properties relationship of the catalysts for the relevant conversion processes will be discussed.

Catalytic dehydration of carbohydrates with solid acid catalysts in biphasic media

251st National Meeting (2016)

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