Natural Nanofibrous Cellulose-Derived Solid Acid Catalysts

Solid acid catalysts (SACs) have attracted continuous research interest in past years as they play a pivotal role in establishing environmentally friendly and sustainable catalytic processes for various chemical industries. Development of low-cost and efficient SACs applicable to different catalysis processes are of immense significance but still very challenging so far. Here, we report a new kind of SACS consisting of sulfonated carbon nanofibers that are prepared via incomplete carbonization of low-cost natural nanofibrous cellulose followed by sulphonation with sulfuric acid. The prepared SACS feature nanofibrous network structures, high specific surface area, and abundant sulfonate as well as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups. Remarkably, the nanofibrous SACs exhibit superior performance to the state-of-the-art SACs for a wide range of acid-catalyzed reactions, including dimerization of alpha-methylstyrene, esterification of oleic acid, and pinacol rearrangement. The present approach holds great promise for developing new families of economic but efficient SACs based on natural precursors via scalable and sustainable protocols in the future.