Sulfonation of carbonized xylan-type hemicellulose: a renewable and effective biomass-based biocatalyst for the synthesis of O- and N-heterocycles

The application of biomass-based carbonaceous solid acids in catalysis is attracting increasing attention in the field of chemistry. In this study, a heterogeneous carbon-based solid acid biocatalyst (CXH-SO3H) with regular spherical structure was synthesized from xylan-type hemicellulose (XH) by a simple two-step method. The catalyst was successfully applied in the synthesis of O- and N-heterocycles with yields of 80–99% and 60–97%, respectively. In view of environment and economy, CXH-SO3H shows the merits of environmental friendliness, easy operation, simple work-up, excellent yields, and the avoidance of use of organic solvents and expensive catalysts. Moreover, the as-synthesized solid acid catalyst could be used for several cycles without significant loss in its catalytic activity. The results of FT-IR, XRD, and SEM showed that no distinct differences in physico-chemical structures of CXH-SO3H were observed. Thus, the eco-friendly CXH-SO3H catalyst is a promising candidate for green synthesis of O- and N-heterocycles from low-cost feed-stocks and has good prospect in partially substituting commercially available solid and liquid acid catalysts and precious metal catalysts.