H3PMo12O40 Immobilized on Amine Functionalized SBA-15 as a Catalyst for Aldose Epimerization

In this work various amount of phosphomolybdic acid (PMo) were immobilized on amine functionalized SBA-15 and used as heterogeneous catalysts in the epimerization of glucose in aqueous solution. 13.3PMo/NH2-SBA-15 exhibited the best catalytic performance with a glucose conversion of 34.8% and mannose selectivity of 85.6% within two hours at 120 °C. The activation energy of 80.1 ± 0.1 kJ·mol-1 was lower than that of 96 kJ·mol-1 over the homogeneous H3PMo12O40 catalyst. The catalytic activities of 13.3PMo/NH2-SBA-15 for the transformation of some other aldoses including mannose, arabinose and xylose were also investigated.