Impact of Porous Silica Nanosphere Architectures on the Catalytic Performance of Supported Sulphonic Acid Sites for Fructose Dehydration to 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural.

5-hydroxymethylfurfural represents a key chemical in the drive towards a sustainable circular economy within the chemical industry. The final step in 5-hydroxymethylfurfural production is the acid catalysed dehydration of fructose, for which supported organoacids are excellent potential catalyst candidates. Here we report a range of solid acid catalysis based on sulphonic acid grafted onto different porous silica nanosphere architectures, as confirmed by TEM, N porosimetry, XPS and ATR-IR.

Palladium-doped hierarchical ZSM-5 for catalytic selective oxidation of allylic and benzylic alcohols.

Hierarchical zeolites have the potential to provide a breakthrough in transport limitation, which hinders pristine microporous zeolites and thus may broaden their range of applications. We have explored the use of Pd-doped hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites for aerobic selective oxidation (selox) of cinnamyl alcohol and benzyl alcohol to their corresponding aldehydes. Hierarchical ZSM-5 with differing acidity (H-form and Na-form) were employed and compared with two microporous ZSM-5 equivalents.