Synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from cellulose using silica-amorphous carbon and choline chloride:CrCl3

Abstract

The silica-amorphous carbon bearing SO₃H group was synthesised by incomplete carbonisation of glucose and sulfonation with concentrated H₂SO₄ and the structure was  determined by FTIR, XRD, and EDX. In this study, their catalytic activities were investigated in the synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from cellulose with choline chloride:CrCl₃ deep eutectic solvent (DES). The results showed the highest yield of HMF at a reaction temperature of 140ºC for 1 h with 1 mmol cellulose, 6 mmol [EMIM]Cl, 10 mg silica-amorphous carbon and 50% mol DES ChCl:CrCl₃. In particular, the catalyst was able to recover and reuse three times with a little decrease in yield for the conversion of cellulose to HMF.