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 ZrO2 as solid acid catalysts is reported. The monolithic porous SiO2 created confined spaces in which porous ZrO2 was synthesized in it. The ZrO2 has excellent porous structure in which the specific surface area reaches 277 m2 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 ZrO2 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.