Nanoporous carbon nanoparticles with high graphitic nitrogen amounts were synthesized and used as a metal free catalyst for effective HMF-to-FDCA conversion.
What was the biggest surprise?It would be the controllable selectivity to 5-formyl-2-furoic acid (FFCA) and2 ,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Selectivity to the desired product is alwaysaproblem in the oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), not only because HMF is easily converted to other chemicals, but also because there are several intermediate stages duringt he sequential oxidationp rocess. However,o wing to the different reactionr ates of each intermediate, we found that we are ablet oc ontrol the reaction product to be either FFCA or FDCA by simply adjusting the ratio between HMF and the catalyst.
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