Mesoporous ZrO2 Nanopowder Catalysts for the Synthesis of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural

Balancing the large surface area and high crystallinity of heterogeneous metal oxide catalysts is quite tricky. They are usually needed together to get both a large amount of active catalytic sites and high thermal stability. In this paper, the preparation of porous sulfate ZrO 2 as solid acid catalysts is reported. The monolithic porous SiO 2 created confined spaces in which porous ZrO 2 was synthesized in it. The ZrO 2 has excellent porous structure in which the specific surface area reaches 277 m 2 g –1 and has good crystallinity. At the same time, they have high acid site loading (2.57 mmol g –1 ) upon sulfation. The sulfonic ZrO 2 exhibits excellent catalytic performance when considering the dehydration of 5-HMF from d -fructose. The yield of 5-HMF is 87% for 60 min at 120 °C. Thus, this solid acid catalyst was a potential candidate for heterogeneous catalysis and biomass quick conversion.