Zirconium-lignin hybrid catalyst for the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley reduction of biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan

A high-efficiency zirconium-based single-atom catalyst for the transformation of biomass-derived 5 hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan with nearly 100% selectivity

“…Compared with our previous works, this numerical value was greater by 21.5 times that of 5.61 h −1 over Zr-HTC 62 and 10.6 times that of 10.86 h −1 over Zr-EL. 63 Simultaneously, as far as we know, it should be the highest value for the TH of HMF to BHMF on the basis of Zrbased catalysts (Table S3 †).…”

“…More recently, considerable attention has been prevailingly concentrated on various zirconium-organic coordination catalysts (ZOCCs), in which the commercially available cyanuric acid (CA), 51 tannin (TN), 52 alizarin (AZN), 53 chitosan (CTS), 54 lignosulfonate (LS), 55 diethylene triaminepenta(acetic acid) (DTPA), 56 amino tris(methylene phosphonic acid) (ATMPA), 57 diethylene triaminepenta(methylene phosphonic acid) (DTMPA), 58 m-xylylene diphosphonic acid (XDPA), 59 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) 60 and 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (BTC) 61 were commonly used as organic ligands. In particular, our research group also found that glucose-derived hydrothermal carbon (HTC) 62 and enzymatic hydrolysis lignin (EL), 63 containing carboxyl and phenolic hydroxyl groups, could be directly employed as organic ligands to prepare the corresponding ZOCCs. Owing to abundant zirconium-oxygen active species (Zr−O x ) with Lewis acidbase properties and their synergistic effects in activating the −CvO moiety of HMF and the −OH moiety of isopropanol (iPrOH), the above-mentioned ZOCCs displayed excellent catalytic activities for the TH of HMF to BHMF in iPrOH.…”

“…Owing to abundant zirconium-oxygen active species (Zr−O x ) with Lewis acidbase properties and their synergistic effects in activating the −CvO moiety of HMF and the −OH moiety of isopropanol (iPrOH), the above-mentioned ZOCCs displayed excellent catalytic activities for the TH of HMF to BHMF in iPrOH. [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] However, they still have some non-negligible issues. For instance, the content of Zr exceeded 20% and the turnover frequency (TOF) was lower than 10 h −1 in most ZOCCs.…”

“…For instance, the content of Zr exceeded 20% and the turnover frequency (TOF) was lower than 10 h −1 in most ZOCCs. [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] Additionally, when the primary alcohols, such as ethanol (EtOH) and n-butanol (nBuOH), were adopted as HDs for the TH of HMF to BHMF, most ZOCCs afforded an inferior yield and selectivity, [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] which greatly limited their practical application. Therefore, constructing a more effective catalyst with a low Zr content and a wide HD universality is certainly needed for the TH of HMF to BHMF.…”