Chemicals from Renewables: Aerobic Oxidation of Furfural and Hydroxymethylfurfural over Gold Catalysts

Aerobic exercise: The biomass-derived platform chemicals furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) are readily oxidized in methanol in the presence of oxygen and a supported gold nanoparticle catalyst to afford the corresponding methyl esters (see scheme). Thus, furfural was oxidized to methyl furoate under very mild conditions, and HMF was converted into furan-2,5-dimethylcarboxylate (FDMC), a potential polymer building block, with high yields.