From Sugar into Chemicals: Efficient Catalytic Dehydration of Fructose and Glucose to 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural under Mild Conditions

摘要

Introduction Renewable biomass resources are promising alternatives for the sustainable supply of chemical intermediates and liquid fuels. Catalytic transformation of sugar especially becomes an attractive topic in recent years. 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a versatile key intermediate in the biofuel chemistry and petroleum industry, can be obtained from the catalytic dehydration of fructose and glucose. Nowadays, much attention had been given to metal-catalyzed synthesis of HMF owing to its high selectivity with a negligible acid by-product. In this work, we report that the efficient promotion of tetrabutyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) in metal-catalyzed dehydration of sugars. With a combination of metal chloride and TBAB, a 78% yield of HMF is obtained from fructose in the suitable solvent for 2h at 90℃ in air.