Conversion of Glucose to Valuable Platform Chemicals over Graphene Solid Acid Catalyst

Biomass-derived hexose sugars, the most abundant renewable resources in the world, have potential to be the sustainable resources for production of platform chemicals. Here, conversion of glucose is investigated by using sulfonated graphene (rGO-SO₃H) as solid acid catalyst in water without any organic solvent. At first, graphene functionalized with sulfonic acid groups is prepared by using NaH and propane sultone, and then it is characterized by means of XPS, FT-IR, and TEM to confirm the existence of the sulfonic acid groups. The catalytic activity of rGO-SO₃H in the conversion of glucose to valuable chemicals is studied under different reaction conditions. The maximum yield of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is 28.8%, and the total yield of formic acid, lactic acid and HMF is 51.94% when the reaction is conducted at the optimized reaction condition. In addition, the rGO-SO₃H gives a relatively high total yield of the three kinds of products after five run experiments, indicating that the catalyst shows good thermal stability.