Synthesis of mesoporous sulfonated carbon from chicken bones to boost rapid conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and carbohydrates to 5-ethoxymethylfurfural

Sulfonated carbon material is an important class of catalysts, but controllable preparation of highperformance materials for biomass transformations is still challenging. Here, we demonstrate an effective strategy to prepare mesoporous sulfonated carbon materials from chicken bones to convert carbohydrates to 5-ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF). The carbonization of chicken bones without using additional templates gave hierarchical porous carbon materials. The subsequent sulfonation by chemical reduction approach introduced 2.33 mmol/g of -PhSO3H group, reserved abundant mesopores but blocked micropores. The sulfonated carbon materials afforded EMF yields of 94.7% and 68.6% from 5hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and fructose in ethanol within 1.5 h and 2 h, respectively, without using high boiling point co-solvents. Furthermore, the apparent activation energies for HMF and fructose conversion were 29.1 and 49.5 kJ/mol, respectively. The catalyst could be reused four times with EMF yield decreasing from 68.6% to 62.7%.

Automated summary

This paper presents an effective strategy to prepare mesoporous sulfonated carbon materials from chicken bones, which can be used for the conversion of carbohydrates to 5-ethoxymethylfurfural. The new materials exhibit excellent catalytic performance and reusability.