Highly efficient aerobic oxidation of biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethyl furfural to produce 2,5-diformylfuran in the presence of copper salts
Abstract
An efficient and selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to produce 2,5-diformyl furan (DFF) has been achieved using a cheap copper(I) iodate as catalyst in dimethylsulfoxide solvent. The effect of different mediators including N-hydroxyphthalimide, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl piperidine-1-oxyl radical, 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT) and N-methylmorphilone N-oxide were investigated. It was found that the combination of CuI–HBT favors the generation of DFF in the oxidation. Moreover, the molecular oxygen as the oxidant is superior to tert-butyl hydroperoxide and hydrogen peroxide as oxidant in this catalytic process. For instance, a 93.2% conversion and 99% selectivity for DFF was obtained under 0.3 MPa of O2 at 130 °C for 10 h. The effects of catalyst amount, temperature and solvent were also discussed. Furthermore, a hypothetical reaction mechanism is proposed.
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