Pt/N co-doped porous carbon derived from bio-tar: A remarkable catalyst for efficient oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural under alkali-free condition: Performance, mechanism and kinetics

Green production process of high value-added bio-platform compounds is appealing yet challenging due to low catalyst performance and demand for acid or alkali conditions. Herein, we fabricated a tailored bio-tar derived super porous carbon material supported nano Pt catalyst via tuning the alkalinity by nitrogen doping. This novel catalyst realized an enhanced catalytic performance in selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in alkaline free conditions, in which 97.8% HMF conversion and 54.7% FDCA selectivity were achieved under mild temperature (90 °C). The kinetic study revealed that the process is multi-step parallel reactions of 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF) and 5-formylfuran-2-carboxylic acid (FFCA) as intermediates from HMF, and the oxidation of carbonyl group in FFCA is the rate-determining step. This work provides a new synthesis method of low-cost catalyst by using organic waste and inspires a sustainable process for bio-platform compounds production with significant environmental benefits.