Simultaneous Coproduction of Xylonic Acid and Xylitol: Leveraging In Situ Hydrogen Generation and Utilization from Xylose

Abstract Pentose oxidation and reduction, processes yielding value‐added sugar‐derived acids and alcohols, typically involve separate procedures necessitating distinct reaction conditions. In this study, a novel one‐pot reaction for the concurrent production of xylonic acid and xylitol from xylose is proposed. This reaction was executed at ambient temperature in the presence of a base, eliminating the need for external gases, by leveraging Pt‐supported catalysts. Initial experiments using commercially available metal‐supported carbon catalysts validated the superior activity of Pt. However, a notable decline in recycling performance was observed in Pt/C, which is attributed to the sintering of Pt nanoparticles. In contrast, the synthesized Pt‐supported ZrO 2 catalysts exhibited enhanced recycling performance because of the strong metal–support interaction between Pt and the ZrO 2 support. Furthermore, mechanistic insights and density functional theory calculations show that product desorption involves a significantly higher energy barrier compared to substrate adsorption and hydrogenation, highlighting an efficient transfer hydrogenation mechanism leading to equivalent yields of both xylonic acid and xylitol. This study introduces a promising approach for the simultaneous production of sugar‐derived acids and alcohols, with implications for sustainable catalysis and process optimization.