Sulfonated P-W modified nitrogen-containing carbon-based solid acid catalysts for one-pot conversion of cellulose to ethyl levulinate under water-ethanol medium

Converting cellulose (Cel) into ethyl levulinate (EL) is one of the promising strategies for supplying liquid fuels. In this paper, the prepared sulfonated P-W-modified N-containing carbon-based solid acid catalyst (PWNCS), in which the Polyaniline (PANI) was employed as N and C precursors, successfully converted Cel into EL under the water-ethanol medium. The characterization results demonstrated that a tiny addition of P increased the Brønsted acid sites (BAS) content and defective WO 3 provided the Lewis acid sites (LAS), meanwhile, the sulfonation process did not change the fundamental structure but introduced the sulfonic groups to dramatically increase the acidic content. Therefore, under optimized reaction conditions, PWNCS realized about 100% Cel conversion and 71.61% of EL yield, furthermore, the selectivity of EL reached 89.14%. In addition, the effect of water on the reaction pathway of Cel to EL over PWNCS was proposed. The addition of water generally resulted in the hydration of defective WO 3 to reduce the LAS and increase BAS, which significantly inhibited the side reactions of retro-aldol condensation (RAC) and subsequent etherification reactions during Cel conversion and then improved the selectivity of EL.