Glucose Conversion to 5-(Hydroxymethyl)furfural (5-HMF) using Microwave Radiation and Titanium Dioxide

In this project, the focus is placed on the reaction optimizations to produce 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), a common chemical building block to other industrially useful derivatives. The main objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of using different forms of TiO2 as a catalyst to acquire 5-HMF from monosaccharides by an efficient, economical, and environment-friendly process. The use of three different forms of TiO2 (anatase, rutile, and P-25) as a catalyst, for the glucose dehydration process in this study, has never been reported in past literature. The heating by microwave radiation is introduced to the reaction, which requires elevated temperature, to reduce both the required reaction time and temperature. TiO2, the heterogeneous catalyst for the dehydration mechanism, was filtered off, while the 5-HMF dissolved and stayed in the aqueous solution. The three TiO2 catalyst forms are separately utilized to optimize reaction conditions. Anatase form is shown to be the most effective at catalyzing the dehydration process. The reaction temperature of 187 degrees C; anatase as a catalyst; and reaction time of 5 minutes led to the optimal outcome in this project. The maximum 5-HMF yield obtained in this study is 12.84%, which is in-between the 6.10-18.60% 5-HMF yield range acquired by Qi et al., 2008. Moreover, a catalyst/substrate weight ratio of 1:10 was used in this study, compared to the 1:2 ratio used by Qi et al., 2008. Hence, this project reduced the amount of catalyst required to obtain a significant 5-HMF yield, and successfully demonstrated that the anatase form of TiO2 is a viable catalyst for the dehydration of monosaccharides to 5-HMF.