Sulfonated carbon-titanium dioxide composite nanofiber tube catalysts for dehydration of sugars in biphasic solvents to obtain 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

Background In order to replace petrochemicals , there is an increasing demand for environmentally friendly new biochemicals, and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural is one such product. Methods In this paper, sulfonated carbon-titanium dioxide composite nanofiber tube catalyst was prepared by electrospinning and used for the dehydration of carbohydrates into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in aqueous/ethyl acetate biphasic solution. The catalyst showed good activity in preparing of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using fructose and glucose as raw materials, with yields of 75.47% and 42.44% of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. In addition, the catalyst still had catalytic effect when starch and cellulose as the reactants. Significant findings Results showed that the catalytic ability of the catalyst was found to be significantly better than that of a single sulfonated carbon or titanium dioxide, at the same time, the catalyst can be used multiple times and is easy to regenerate. Besides, this study investigated the purification process of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and finally obtained 95.34 wt.% purity of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural.