Sulfated Mesoporous Niobium Oxide Catalyzed 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Formation from Sugars

Abstract

The effectiveness of sulfated mesoporous niobium oxide (MNO-S) as a catalyst for the production of 5hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) from sugar was studied and is reported herein. The structures of the synthesized MNO-S catalysts and commercial Nb 2 O 5 were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET) analysis, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Compared with commercial Nb 2 O 5 , the MNO-S-based catalysts showed a much higher surface area and acidity. MNO-S calcined at 300 °C was found to be the most effective catalyst in fructose dehydration into 5-HMF in DMSO, with a yield as high as 88% and excellent recyclability. Furthermore, the Bronsted acid sites on the surface of the catalyst enable hydrolysis and dehydration reactions to occur in a one-pot manner. As such, MNO-S effectively transforms a wide range of sugar substrates, such as sucrose, cellobiose, and even the polysaccharide inulin, into 5-HMF with reasonable yields.

Effect of the niobium state on the properties of NbSiBEA as bifunctional catalysts for gas- and liquid-phase tandem processes

“…NbSiBEA zeolites with different location of niobium were tested in the liquid-phase tandem process (Scheme 2), including MPV reduction of aldehyde 1 with 2-butanol to 4-methoxybenzyl alcohol (2), followed by its etherification with 2-butanol to 4-methoxybenzyl 1-methylpropyl ether (3). As well as in the case of ethanol conversion into BD, the catalyst of the process should be bifunctional.…”

“…Nb2O5/SiO2 catalysts are active in sugar dehydration [2][3][4][5], methanol oxidation [6], glycerol dehydration to acrolein [7] and oxidation reactions with aqueous H2O2 [8][9][10][11]. Catalysts based on niobium oxides were also used in the process of ethanol (EtOH) conversion to 1,3-butadiene (BD) [12,13].…”

Efficient dehydration of fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural over sulfonated carbon sphere solid acid catalysts

“…Introducing different trivalent metal cations enhanced the VOP catalytic activity; the yield and selectivity increased to 50% and 87%, respectively over a Fe-containing VOP catalyst. Nb-based catalysts such as Nb 2 O 5 , niobium phosphate (NbPO 4 ) and sulfated mesoporous niobium oxide also exhibited high catalytic activity [23][24][25][26]. Zr-and Ti-based catalysts with different structures were tried in the dehydration of fructose, HMF yield of 47% was obtained within 4 h at 130 • C over SO 4 2− /ZrO 2 Al 2 O 3 with Zr Al molar ratio of 1:1 [27].…”

Base promoted hydrogenolysis of lignin model compounds and organosolv lignin over metal catalysts in water

“…Recently, the valorisation of biomass, such as lignin, (Perlack, 2005;Huber et al, 2006;Corma et al, 2007;Stöcker, 2008;Yan et al, 2010;Long et al, 2012;Long et al, 2013;Mu et al, 2013;Sammons et al, 2013) cellulose (Ngee et al, 2014;Siankevich et al, 2014;Yabushita et al, 2014) and chitin, (Dutta et al, 2004;Pierson et al, 2014) as sustainable alternative for energy, fuel and chemical production becomes cumulatively interesting. Lignin is the most abundant natural aromatic polymer.…”