Selective conversion of cotton cellulose to glucose and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural with SO4(2-)/MxOy solid superacid catalyst.

This paper presented a mild hydrothermal process for degradation of cotton cellulose with solid superacid catalyst and selective conversion of cotton cellulose to glucose and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF). Five kinds of solid superacid catalyst such as SO4(2-)/SnO2, SO4(2-)/TiO2, SO4(2-)/ZrO2, SO4(2-)/Fe2O3 and SO4(2-)/Al2O3 were prepared by impregnation method. The BET surface area of catalyst SO4(2-)/SnO2 was up to 118.8m(2)g(-1) when impregnation was performed with 1molL(-1) H2SO4 of impregnating solution at 550°C calcination temperature for 3h. It made the hydrothermal temperature of cellulose degradation decrease to 190°C successfully and suppressed the side reaction. The NH3-TPD profile of SO4(2-)/SnO2 indicated there was a wide region of stronger acid sites on the catalyst surface. The depolymerization of cotton cellulose obtained 11.0% yield and 22.0% selectivity of HMF and 26.8% yield and 53.4% selectivity of glucose, respectively. The regeneration and reuse of solid superacid catalyst were also discussed in this paper.