5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a key biobased platform
compound
for the production of high-value chemicals and fuels. However, separation
and purification of HMF is currently the bottleneck for HMF production.
In this work, a novel class of temperature-responsive deep eutectic
solvent (DES)–water systems have been explored to selectively
separate HMF from reaction mixtures. The fructose dehydration reaction
was conducted in homogeneous DES–H2O systems, and
then, the produced HMF was migrated to the DES-rich phase while the
unreacted fructose was retained in the H2O-rich phase upon
cooling. Thus, selective separation of HMF was realized. It was found
that water–water and DES–DES interactions predominate
over DES–water interactions during cooling, thus resulting
in upper critical solution temperature phase separation. Under optimal
conditions, the partition coefficient and separation factor of HMF
could reach up to 78 and 609, respectively, which is about 5 and 13
times those reported in ionic liquid-based aqueous biphasic systems.
Furthermore, HMF could be removed from the DES-rich phase, giving
a high recovery efficiency of 69%, which is much higher than the best
value reported in the literature. At the same time, DES was regenerated
and reused in the next process, and no obvious decrease in partition
coefficient of HMF was observed after six cycles.