Synthesis of ethyl levulinate from cellulose over a double acid site catalyst

BACKGROUND A novel double acid site solid catalyst (Al-OCS-0.1) having an ordered mesoporous structure was synthesized by grafting sulfonic acid groups on an oxidized ordered mesoporous carbon (OOMC) support and loading 10% Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 . RESULT Assessments using Field emission scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction showed that the OMC structure remained unchanged after the chemical modification and Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 loading. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and average pore size of Al-OCS-0.1 decreased to 181 m 2 g −1 and 7.1 nm after loading Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 , respectively. Ammonia temperature-programmed desorption (NH 3 -TPD) and Pyridine adsorption infrared spectroscopy (Py-IR) demonstrated that Al-OCS-0.1 had abundant Brønsted and Lewis acid sites. The ammonia desorption of Al-OCS-0.1 increased from 2.0 to 7.2 mmol g −1 after loading Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 . CONCLUSION The Al-OCS-0.1 was used to catalyze the synthesis of ethyl levulinate from cellulose in ethanol and gave an extremely high yield of 50.8 mol% after 5 h at 200 °C. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).