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Published on: June 1, 2018
Efficient catalytic conversion of corn stalk and xylose into furfural over sulfonated graphene in γ-valerolactone
Jianru Ma1,2, Wenzhi Li1, Shengnan Guan1
1Laboratory of Basic Research in Biomass Conversion and Utilization, Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei 230026 PR China liwenzhi@ustc.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Sulfonated graphene (SG) was prepared and employed to convert corn stalk and xylose into furfural. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to characterize SG. The effects of reaction time, temperature, substrate loading, catalyst dosage and solvents on the reaction were researched and optimized. SG exhibited high catalytic activity in the conversion of xylose and corn stalk to furfural. A fairly high furfural yield of 96% was achieved at 150 °C from xylose and a 71.9% furfural yield was obtained when using a 10.7 ratio (mass ratio: xylose to SG) at 140 °C. While a 48% furfural yield was obtained from corn stalk (based on the starting combined moles of xylan and glucan in corn stalk; yield was >100%, if based on only xylan) using a substrate loading (corn stalk to catalyst mass ratio) of 2.14 and a 19% 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) yield was obtained. What's more, a 43.9% yield of furfural was obtained in only 20 min. In addition, the reusability of SG was also investigated and shown to have good stability for xylose dehydration.
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