One-pot transformation of cellobiose to formic acid and levulinic acid over ionic-liquid-based polyoxometalate hybrids.

Currently, levulinic acid (LA) and formic acid (FA) are considered as important carbohydrates for the production of value-added chemicals. Their direct production from biomass will open up a new opportunity for the transformation of biomass resource to valuable chemicals. In this study, one-pot transformation of cellobiose into LA and FA was demonstrated, using a series of multiple-functional ionic liquid-based polyoxometalate (IL-POM) hybrids as catalytic materials. These IL-POMs not only markedly promoted the production of valuable chemicals including LA, FA and monosaccharides with high selectivities, but also provided great convenience of the recovery and the reuse of the catalytic materials in an environmentally friendly manner. Cellobiose conversion of 100%, LA selectivity of 46.3%, and FA selectivity of 26.1% were obtained at 423 K and 3 MPa for 3 h in presence of oxygen. A detailed catalytic mechanism for the one-pot transformation of cellobiose was also presented.