Investigation of Conversion of Fructose to 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Over Carbon Skeleton-Based Acid Catalysts

Two carbon skeleton-based acid catalysts were the amberlyst-15 and the sulfonated activatedcarbon (AC-SO3H). The sulfonated activated carbon was sulfonated by concentrated acid H2SO4. The formation of SO3H groups was detected by infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis by EDX method. A commercial acidic ion-exchange resin, amberlyst-15, was also studied as a reference. Catalytic activity of both catalysts were estimated by conversion of fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Theinfluence of temperature and time reaction on the yield of HMF has been studied. With reaction time of 90 mins and reaction temperature of 120oC, the maximum of HMF yield attained 60% for catalyst AC-SO3H. In case of amberlyst-15, this one was 81% at 160oC and 60 min. Basing on sulphur content and morphologies of catalysts. It seems that the HMF yield was proportional to the number of accessible sulfonic groups -SO3H on catalyst surface.