Low-Temperature Plasma Modification of Lignin-Derived Carbon Solid Acid Catalyst for Catalytic Production of 5-HMF

Sulfonated carbon catalysts exhibit superior catalytic performance for production of biobased chemicals, but the catalyst preparation approaches are still suffered from high corrosion and possible pollution risks. In this paper, lignin extracted from corn stover was used to prepare lignin-based activated carbon, which was then subjected to grafting modification by sulfur dioxide nonthermal plasma method to construct a novel lignin-derived solid acid catalyst (LP-LDSA). The catalytic performances of LP-LDSA were further determined by dehydration of fructose to produce 5-HMF in a biphasic solvent system composed by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and water. Under the optimal conditions, the 5-HMF yield and reaction selectivity were 88.9% and 89.4%, respectively. This LP-LDSA catalyst also exhibited excellent stability and reusability in five sequential reaction batches. This method has advantages of shorter solid acid preparation duration, lower energy consumption, and higher catalytic stability, presenting an innovative and green method for sulfonation production of solid acid catalyst. Graphical Abstract