Tandem Conversion of Fructose to Bio‐diketones Using a Multifunctional Pd‐POPs‐CF₃SO₃H Catalyst

Abstract

Tandem conversion of biomass to value‐added fine chemicals is a significant challenge. For instance, the production of fine chemicals from fructose involves conversion to 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (5‐HMF), followed by another reaction and purification. Dual catalyst systems have been used in nearly every study on the tandem conversion of fructose to bio‐diketones. Therefore, a sole multifunctional heterogeneous catalyst was developed in this study for the tandem conversion of fructose to bio‐diketones, which has not been reported previously. Instrument corrosion and the separation or purification of 5‐HMF were avoided using the multifunctional heterogeneous catalyst, which contained integrated active sites of acid, metal, and anions. The multifunctional CF3SO3H‐functionalized porous‐organic‐polymers(POPs)‐supported Pd catalyst (Pd‐POPs‐CF3SO3H) was prepared using a series of modifications. A bio‐diketone yield of 51.0 % was achieved using Pd‐POPs‐CF3SO3H in the tandem conversion of fructose with an excellent TOF of 88.3 h−1 which is much more efficient than catalyst reported in literatures. Pd‐POPs‐CF3SO3H could be reused at least three times with stable performance. Control experiments and characterization results proved that the high specific surface area, hierarchical pore structure, abundance of CF3SO3−1 anions, and proximity of Pd moieties and acid sites (“The closer the better” principle) led to the decent performance for bio‐diketone.