Pt nanoparticles loaded on reduced graphene oxide as an effective catalyst for the direct oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to produce 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) under mild conditions

Article abstract of DOI:10.1246/bcsj.20140096

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is one of the most promising catalyst supports because it has faintly acidic sites together with a large amount of functional groups on its surface. In this report, we prove that, for the first time, Pt-loaded RGO (Pt/RGO) is an efficient, robust, and durable catalyst for oxidizing 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) directly to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) under mild conditions. The selectivity of FDCA reaches up to 84% along with 100% HMF conversion in the presence of excess base. We deduce that the total reaction on the Pt/RGO catalyst includes several consecutive steps, in which 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA) acts as an intermediate. The finding in this report is a significant advancement not only for RGO-based catalyst development, but also for scalable FDCA production, because the total reaction is performed smoothly without using the previously reported harsh reaction conditions.