Highly Efficient Conversion of Fructose to Furan Compounds in Ethanol Using Sulfonated Polymers with Solvent Moieties to Inhibit Product Degradation.

The catalytic dehydration of fructose to 5-ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF) in ethanol provides a promising approach for low-carbon chemical production. However, current catalytic systems generally suffer from a trade-off between reaction efficiency and product selectivity. Herein, we show that incorporating solvent moieties to sulfonated polymer enables the highly efficient conversion of fructose to furan compounds in ethanol via restraining product degradation. The co-polymerization of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone, with divinylbenzene (DVB) and sodium p-styrene sulfonate (SPSS) gave 1.5VP/0.64SPSS/0.37DVB that has slightly lower acid contents and inferior pore structure than the co-polymer of DVB and SPSS. The 1.5VP/0.64SPSS/0.37DVB catalyst exhibited maximal EMF yield of 81.9% with a total furan yield of 92.7%, Which is remarkably higher than previous reports. Moreover, the 1.5VP/0.64SPSS/0.37DVB catalyst gave a high HMF yield in pure tetrahydrofuran. The superior performance was attributed to the improved stability of the product. Our findings will instruct the design of active and selective catalysts to facilitate the production of biomass-derived products.