Utilization of biomass waste: Facile synthesis high nitrogen-doped porous carbon from pomelo peel and used as catalyst support for aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

Abstract The oxidation of 5-hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is a sustainable and promising method for the preparation of bio-derived aromatic polyesters. Nitrogen doped carbon material is an effective catalyst support in preparing supported nanoparticle metal catalysts in heterogeneous reactions. In this work, by pyrolysis of bio-waste carbon material, pomelo peel, under 800 °C flowing NH3, high nitrogen (up to 11.4 wt%) doped porous carbon material (NC) was facilely obtained. Pt nanoparticles (NPs) can be uniformly dispersed on NC surface and stabilized by the doped nitrogen dopant. Supported Pt NPs by NC-800 (Pt/NC-800) was proved to be an efficient catalyst in aerobic oxidation of HMF into FDCA. Control experiments show that the oxidation of 5-hydrox-ymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA) to 5-formyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (FFCA) by supported Pt NPs was the key step to determine the oxidation rate of HMF to FDCA. With controlled experiment results and previous reports, a catalytic mechanism involving water, molecular O2, hydroxyl ions and Pt NPs was given and explained well of the phenomenon of high HMFCA concentration accumulation during reaction.