Efficient Production of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural from Concentrated Carbohydrates and Raw Biomass over SnP2O7–SnO2 Catalysts

Catalytic conversion of concentrated carbohydrates and raw biomass into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), an important and value-added platform chemical, is highly desirable for industrial applications but challenging. In this work, the tin pyrophosphate-oxide (SnP2O7–SnO2) catalyst has been designed to efficiently produce HMF from various concentrated carbohydrates and raw biomass. Especially, a high HMF yield of 67.8% was implemented over the SPC4 catalyst from concentrated glucose (36 wt %) in a biphasic solvent system of water and methyl isobutyl ketone. Moreover, the SPC4 catalyst disclosed a wide range of universality for converting various concentrated carbohydrates and raw biomass to HMF with satisfactory yields (45.9–79.5%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of accomplishing appreciable HMF yields from carbohydrates and raw biomass at such a high substrate concentration. It has been demonstrated that the superior catalytic performance of the catalyst should originate from its balanced Lewis and Brønsted acidity and superhydrophilicity property. This work invents a highly promising heterogeneous catalyst for efficiently valorizing renewable lignocellulose-related compounds into versatile furans.