Premium
Ultrafine Copper Oxide Particles Dispersed on Nitrogen‐Doped Hollow Carbon Nanospheres for Oxidative Esterification of Biomass‐Derived 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural
Author(s) -
Gupta Shyam Sunder R.,
Vinu Ajayan,
Kantam Mannepalli Lakshmi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chempluschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.801
H-Index - 61
ISSN - 2192-6506
DOI - 10.1002/cplu.202000713
Subject(s) - oxidizing agent , catalysis , carbon fibers , nanoparticle , copper , reagent , materials science , yield (engineering) , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , composite number , metallurgy , engineering , composite material
One‐pot synthesis of furan‐2,5‐dimethylcarboxylate (FDMC) from 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is highly demanding for the commercial production of polyethylene furanoate (PEF). Herein, a direct synthesis of FDMC is reported from oxidative esterification of HMF using ultrafine CuO particles dispersed on nitrogen‐doped hollow carbon nanospheres (CuO/N−C−HNSs) as a catalyst and tert ‐butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an oxidizing and methylating reagent. The CuO/N−C−HNSs was prepared through a template protection‐sacrifice strategy using SiO 2 as a sacrificial template and histidine as the precursor for N and C. N‐doping facilitated a strong interaction between the support and copper species, affording formation of CuO nanoparticles of less than 10 nm in size. By virtue of the highly dispersed CuO nanoparticles and a high BET surface area 373 m 2 /g, the CuO/N−C−HNSsshows excellent catalytic performance in the selective conversion of HMF into FDMC affording 93 % yield of the desired product with a TON value of 49. Furthermore, the oxidative esterification involving SP 3 C−H bond functionalization is also demonstrated using the same catalyst.