Abstract
Development of efficient strategies for biomass valorization is a highly attractive topic. Herein, we conducted the first work on electrocatalytic oxidation of renewable furfural to produce the key bioactive intermediate 5-hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone (HFO). It was demonstrated that using H2O as the oxygen source and metal chalcogenides (CuS, ZnS, PbS, etc.) as electrocatalysts, the reaction could proceed efficiently, and the CuS nanosheets prepared in this work showed the best performance and provided high HFO selectivity (83.6%) and high conversion (70.2%) of furfural. In addition, the CuS electrocatalyst showed long-term stability. Mechanism investigation showed that furfural was oxidized to HFO via multistep reactions, including C-C cleavage, subsequent ring opening and oxidation, and intramolecular isomerization.
Highlights
With the gradual depletion of fossil fuel resources, utilization of renewable and abundant biomass to produce valuable chemicals and functional materials has become a very interesting eld.[1,2,3,4,5] In this regard, producing valuable chemicals using lignocellulose-derived furfural has attracted much attention.6–85-Hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone (HFO) is a key constituent in many biologically active compounds and intermediates.[9]
It was demonstrated that using H2O as the oxygen source and metal chalcogenides (CuS, ZnS, PbS, etc.) as electrocatalysts, the reaction could proceed efficiently, and the CuS nanosheets prepared in this work showed the best performance and provided high HFO selectivity (83.6%) and high conversion (70.2%) of furfural
Edge Article as electrocatalysts, furfural could be selectively oxidized to HFO using H2O as the oxygen source under ambient conditions in a ternary electrolyte consisting of triethylammonium nitrate ([Et3NH]NO3), acetonitrile (MeCN) and H2O, and the synthesized CuS nanosheets provided the best performance with a high HFO selectivity (83.6%) and high conversion (70.2%) of furfural
Summary
With the gradual depletion of fossil fuel resources, utilization of renewable and abundant biomass to produce valuable chemicals and functional materials has become a very interesting eld.[1,2,3,4,5] In this regard, producing valuable chemicals using lignocellulose-derived furfural has attracted much attention.6–85-Hydroxy-2(5H)-furanone (HFO) is a key constituent in many biologically active compounds and intermediates.[9]. It was demonstrated that using H2O as the oxygen source and metal chalcogenides (CuS, ZnS, PbS, etc.) as electrocatalysts, the reaction could proceed efficiently, and the CuS nanosheets prepared in this work showed the best performance and provided high HFO selectivity (83.6%) and high conversion (70.2%) of furfural. Edge Article as electrocatalysts, furfural could be selectively oxidized to HFO using H2O as the oxygen source under ambient conditions in a ternary electrolyte consisting of triethylammonium nitrate ([Et3NH]NO3), acetonitrile (MeCN) and H2O, and the synthesized CuS nanosheets provided the best performance with a high HFO selectivity (83.6%) and high conversion (70.2%) of furfural.
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