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An Easy Scalable Approach to HMF Employing DMC as Reaction Media: Reaction Optimization and Comparative Environmental Assessment
Author(s) -
Musolino Manuele,
Andraos John,
Aricò Fabio
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201800198
Subject(s) - chemistry , hydroxymethyl , catalysis , dimethyl carbonate , hydrolysis , furan , tetraethyl orthosilicate , organic chemistry , substrate (aquarium) , fructose , hydroxymethylfurfural , furfural , oceanography , geology
In this work, bio‐based platform molecule 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was synthesised under mild conditions (90 °C) from D‐fructose using as media a mixture of dimethyl carbonate:tetraethyl ammonium bromide (DMC:TEAB). This solvent system resulted in a efficient production of HMF in the presence of both Amberlyst‐15 (heterogeneous catalyst) and BF 3 O(Et) 2 (homogeneous catalyst). HMF was recovered from the reaction mixture with or without minimal work‐up. It is noteworthy that this synthetic approach provided high yielding product also when performed in a large‐scale. Quick reduction of HMF to the related 2,5‐bis(hydroxymethyl)furan was also conducted to further confirm the proposed procedure. Besides, the materials efficiency metrics of the optimized DMC‐based synthetic approach have been compared to alternative syntheses for HMF reported in the literature. This latter study takes into consideration synthetic routes that employ D‐fructose as substrate, easy accessible catalysts and report detailed procedures and evidence of the isolation of HMF.