Insights into solvent effect on selective production of furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from fructose

Abstract

Selective transformation of biomass-based feedstocks into value-added energy chemical is one of the most critical steps in biorefinery process. Herein, we gave insight into solvent effect on selective production of furfural or 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from fructose with the combination of experiments, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It was found that the selective formation of furfural and HMF was mainly dominated by solvent polarity and basicity, and solvent properties could change the reaction pathway of fructose. High polarity-high basicity solvent promoted HMF formation, while high polarity-low basicity solvent was conductive to furfural formation. The preferential arrangement of solvents around fructose tautomers, especially on different C-OH, consequently led to the different products. High yields of furfural (76.2%) and HMF (90.5%) were obtained in the solvents of γ-butyrolactone (GBL)–H2O and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)–H2O.