Selective Conversion of 5-Hydroxymethylfuraldehyde Using Cp*Ir Catalysts in Aqueous Formate Buffer Solution.

The highly selective hydrogenation/hydrolytic ring-opening reaction of 5-hydroxymethylfuraldehyde (5-HMF) was catalyzed by homogeneous Cp*IrIII half-sandwich complexes to produce 1-hydroxy-2,5-hexanedione (HHD). Adjustment of pH was found to regulate the distribution of products and reaction selectivity, and full conversion of 5-HMF to HHD with 99 % selectivity was achieved at pH 2.5. A mechanistic study revealed that the hydrolysis/ring-opening reaction of 2,5-bis-(hydroxymethyl)furan is the important intermediate reaction step. In addition, an isolated yield of 85 % for HHD was obtained in a 10 g-scale experiment, and the reaction with fructose as the starting material also led to a 98 % GC yield (71.9 % to fructose) of HHD owing to the excellent tolerance of the catalyst under acidic conditions.