Abstract
The first catalytic application of a nanoparticulate niobia solid acid prepared from a high area peroxo niobic acid sol, and its SBA-15 supported analogue, is demonstrated for the heterogeneously catalysed aqueous phase conversion of glucose and fructose to 5-HMF.
Highlights
Non-renewable ‘fossil’ resources have been integral to the production of energy and key chemical building blocks for humanity since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century.[1]
We demonstrate the first catalytic application of a high area peroxo niobic acid sol, and associated structure–function relations, in the heterogeneously catalysed aqueous phase conversion of glucose and fructose to 5-HMF, and extend the synthesis to study the impact of dispersing the niobic acid sol over SBA-15
A crystalline hexagonal niobia phase emerged after calcination at 500 °C, whose intensities increased at higher temperature, consistent with crystallite sintering, concomitant with peak splitting at 700 °C due to the transition to an overwhelmingly (>90%) orthorhombic niobia phase.[40]
Summary
Non-renewable ‘fossil’ resources have been integral to the production of energy and key chemical building blocks for humanity since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century.[1]. The higher reactivity of fructose (to predominantly 5-HMF) is in accordance with previous reports that its solid acid catalysed dehydration is more facile than glucose isomerisation.[47,49] While the absolute 5-HMF yield from glucose was unsurprisingly small, in light of the modest glucose conversions, this increased almost exponentially with reaction temperature, reaching 6% at 110 °C (comparable to the performance of TiO2 and ZrO2 at 200 °C49).
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