Selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is one of the key reactions for producing chemical commodities from biomass and their derivatives. The challenge for this reaction is to develop an efficient catalytic process that can be conducted under mild conditions (room temperature and atmospheric pressure, using oxygen molecules in air as the oxidant) and a recyclable catalyst. Herein we report a photocatalyst of cobalt thioporphyrazine (CoPz) dispersed on g-CN (abbreviated as CoPz/g-CN), which exhibits excellent catalytic activity toward the selective oxidation of HMF into FDCA under simulated sunlight using oxygen molecules in air as a benign oxidant. For example, an FDCA yield of 96.1% in an aqueous solution at pH = 9.18 is achieved at ambient temperature and air pressure. At lower pH (4.01), the product generated is 2,5-diformylfuran. Hence, it is possible to control the reaction outcome by control of the pH of the reaction system. g-CN itself is not a suitable catalyst for the selective oxidation because under the experimental conditions g-CN generates hydroxyl radicals that initiate processes that oxidize HMF directly to CO and HO. CoPz on the other hand activates O to give singlet oxygen (O), which more controllably oxidizes HMF to FDCA albeit at a more moderate yield (36.2%). The strong interaction between the CoPz and g-CN in the CoPz/g-CN catalyst is experimentally evidenced, which not only improves accessibility of the CoPz sites and makes the catalyst recyclable but also disables the hydroxyl radical generation by g-CN and promotes O generation on the CoPz sites, significantly enhancing the catalytic performance. This study demonstrates the potential for efficient non-noble metal photocatalysts for organic transformations driven by sunlight.

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