Heterogeneously‐Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of 5‐Hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5‐Furandicarboxylic Acid with MnO2

Abstract A simple non‐precious‐metal catalyst system based on costeffective and ubiquitously available MnO2, NaHCO3, and molecular oxygen was used to convert 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5‐difurandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) as a bioplastics precursor in 91 % yield. The MnO2 catalyst could be recovered by simple filtration and reused several times. The present system was also applicable to the aerobic oxidation of other biomass‐derived substrates and the gram‐scale oxidation of HMF to FDCA, in which 2.36 g (86 % yield) of the analytically pure FDCA could be isolated.