V2O5/SBA-15 Nanocatalysts for the Selective Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural into 2,5-Diformylfuran

A series of V2O5/SBA-15 catalysts with various loadings of 5, 10, 15 and 20% (by weight) V2O5 have been prepared by molecular designed dispersion (MDD) method and are characterized by N-2 adsorption-desorption, Fourier Transform-Raman spectroscopy (FT-Raman), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), low angle and wide-angle XRD, H-2 temperature programmed reduction (TPR), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and Ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis, DRS) techniques. Among V2O5/SBA-15 catalysts, the 10% V2O5/SBA-15 catalyst exhibited 88.6% 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) conversion with 57.9% yield of 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF) when molecular oxygen (0.28 MPa) and toluene were employed as green oxidant and organic solvent respectively at 110 degrees C. The remarkable performance of 10% V2O5/SBA-15 catalyst is owing to the isolated distribution of uniform sized nanovanadium species which are dispersed on the pore surfaces of the hexagonally well-ordered mesoporous material SBA-15 silica support.