LAUSR

There is a significant interest in valorization of biomass and its derivatives into chemicals. In this work, glucose derived from biomass was converted into 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF). Phosphotungstic acid (PHA) supported on magnetic nanoparticles Fe3O4 coated by SiO2 (Fe3O4@SiO2/PHA) was prepared and employed in the synthesis of HMF from glucose. The supported catalyst of Fe3O4@SiO2/PHA was characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR) and powder X-ray diffraction. The results indicated that the supported catalyst exhibited similar catalytic activity to that of homogeneous PHA. The effects of such reaction variables as the amount of PHA, reaction solvent, temperature and time were studied in detail. The yield of HMF at 30.4% was observed at 130 °C for 3 h in N,N-dimethylformamide under nitrogen atmosphere. The supported catalyst was recovered by an external magnet after the reaction and reused in the next run without further pretreatment. No significant change in activity was observed at the initial four cycles, in which the yield of HMF changed in a small range from 28.7 to 30.8%.Graphical Abstract