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A High‐Performance Base‐Metal Approach for the Oxidative Esterification of 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural
Author(s) -
Sun Yuxia,
Ma Hong,
Jia Xiuquan,
Ma Jiping,
Luo Yang,
Gao Jin,
Xu Jie
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201600484
Subject(s) - catalysis , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , chemistry , furan , 5 hydroxymethylfurfural , density functional theory , base (topology) , metal , lewis acids and bases , oxidative phosphorylation , biomass (ecology) , base metal , combinatorial chemistry , organic chemistry , chemical engineering , computational chemistry , materials science , metallurgy , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , oceanography , mathematics , welding , engineering , geology
Exploring high‐performance base‐metal approaches for the sustainable production of chemicals from biomass is presently attracting immense interest and is truly important to promote their industrialized application. Herein, CoO x ‐N/C and α‐MnO 2 were combined as a base‐metal catalyst that can achieve high yields of furan‐2,5‐dimethylcarboxylate (FDMC, 95.6 %) for the catalytic oxidative esterification of 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) without basic additive. The reaction proceeds through fast conversion of HMF to diformylfuran (DFF) with α‐MnO 2 and subsequent transformation of DFF to FDMC by CoO x ‐N/C. Quantitative X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that the pyridinic‐N present in doped carbon could behave as a Lewis base to promote the abstraction of hydrogen for the oxidative esterification reaction. Consequently, CoO x ‐N/C is a high performance catalyst for the synthesis of FDMC from DFF in a neutral medium.