Simple transformation of sustainable biomass-resources to value-added chemicals and fuels has become important to diminish our heavy reliance on decreasing petroleum resources. Biomass-derived materials with hydroxyl groups such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and glycerol can be obtained from sugars directly and transesterification of triglycerides with methanol as by-products, respectively. These chemicals are versatile starting materials because hydroxyl groups can be easily converted to afford value-added chemicals and fuels under oxidative/reductive conditions using supported metal catalysts. This review overviews recent studies on supported metal catalyzed oxidation reactions of HMF, glycerol and biomass-derived aliphatic a,w-diols together with our research to develop highly efficient catalytic systems for bio-refining, based on petroleum conversion and nanotechnologies. Especially, role of external bases in the selective oxidation of biomass-derived alcohols will be discussed. We found that external base-free oxidation of HMF and glycerol is possible if basic supports are used. The activity of alloyed metal nanoparticles for selective oxidation of aliphatic a,w-diols to w-hydroxycarboxylic acids in basic aqueous media at high-pH value is also demonstrated.
Keywords5-Hydroxymethylfurfural, Glycerol, Aliphatic a,w-diols, Selective oxidation, Supported metal catalyst, Bimetallic nanoparticle DOI: doi.org/10.1627/jpi.60.72 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ebitani@jaist.ac.jp using molecular oxygen as the oxidant 18) . For example, Sahu and Dhepe compared the catalytic performance of various metal-oxide supported Pt catalysts with 0.1 MPa O2 in the presence of NaOH (1 equiv.) at 348 K for 12 h 19) . Under the same reaction conditions, Pt/ γ-A12O3, Pt/ZrO2, and Pt/C showed high catalytic activity with FDCA yields of 96, 94, and 89 %, respectively. In contrast, Pt supported on reducible TiO2 and CeO2 produced little FDCA (2 % and 8 % yields) even with ca. 100 % HMF conversion. Cai et al. reported superior catalytic performance of Au nanoparticles (1 nm size) encapsulated in the supercage of HY zeolite for selective HMF oxidation into FDCA with 99 % FDCA yield in water under 0.3 MPa O2 in the presence of NaOH at 333 K 20) . It has been reported the structures of Au nanoparticles and HY zeolite are stable under these conditions, and the Au/HY catalyst is reusable for several catalytic cycles. Negatively-charged Au nanoparticles may be responsible for this excellent catalytic performance.Pasini et al. reported AuCu bimetallic alloy catalyst (4.4 nm diameter) supported on TiO2 for HMF oxidation to FDCA under 1 MPa O2 in the presence of NaOH at 368 K to afford 99 % FDCA yield with complete HMF conversion 21) . A strong synergistic effect is evident with the addition of Cu to Au, especially for catalyst reusability without significant leaching of metal nanoparticles. However, stability test experiments showed the final product is mainly 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancaoboxylic acid (HMFCA) instead...