Insights into solvent effect on selective production of furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from fructose

Selective transformation of biomass-based feedstocks into value-added energy chemical is one of the most critical steps in biorefinery process. Herein, we gave insight into solvent effect on selective produc-tion of furfural or 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from fructose with the combination of experiments, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It was found that the selec-tive formation of furfural and HMF was mainly dominated by solvent polarity and basicity, and solvent properties could change the reaction pathway of fructose. High polarity-high basicity solvent promoted HMF formation, while high polarity-low basicity solvent was conductive to furfural formation. The pref-erential arrangement of solvents around fructose tautomers, especially on different C-OH, consequently led to the different products. High yields of furfural (76.2%) and HMF (90.5%) were obtained in the sol-vents of c-butyrolactone (GBL)-H2O and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-H2O. (c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The solvent effect on the selective production of furfural or 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from fructose was investigated using experiments, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It was found that solvent polarity and basicity played a crucial role in the selective formation of furfural and HMF. The arrangement of solvents around fructose tautomers, particularly around different C-OH, resulted in different products. High yields of furfural (76.2%) and HMF (90.5%) were achieved in γ-butyrolactone (GBL)-H2O and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-H2O solvents.