Cadmium sulfide composite reduced graphene oxide for selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2.5-diformylfurans

In this study, the Cadmium sulfide composite reduced graphene oxide photocatalyst (CdS/xrGO) was successfully synthesized to enhance the conversion of photocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). The conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and the yield of 2.5-diformylfurans (DFF) were 71.18 % and 69.72 %, respectively under optimum conditions, and the selectivity of DFF was significantly higher of about 97.94 %. Compared with CdS as a catalyst, HMF conversion and the DFF yield were roughly double. The excellent photocatalytic performance can be found through various characterization results because specific surface area of rGO is larger which provides many numbers of reaction sites for the reaction, reducing the clustering of CdS and allowing better contact between the photocatalyst and the substrate. Meanwhile, photogenerated electrons were easily transferred to the surface of rGO, which results in improving the separation potential of photogenerated carriers inhibited its complexation and resulting in enhanced photocatalytic performance.