The electrochemical oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is a highly attractive strategy to generate valuable biomass-based oxygenated chemicals. Robust, stable and inexpensive electrocatalysts are crucial for this interesting reaction. In this work, we found that the electrocatalytic performance of cobalt oxide (CoO) could be significantly improved by introducing oxygen vacancies via Se doping. The resulting CoO-CoSe₂ with a CoO/CoSe₂ molar ratio of 23 : 1 showed excellent performance and stability for the electro-oxidation of HMF to FDCA, and a FDCA yield of 99% could be achieved with a faradaic efficiency of 97.9% at a potential of 1.43 V vs. RHE. A systematic study indicates that the introduction of rich oxygen vacancies could enhance the catalytic activity and the selectivity to FDCA by increasing the electrochemical surface area and reducing charge transfer resistance. As far as we know, this is the first work to develop a highly stable metal oxide as the active component for this reaction.

Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of ethyl levulinate (EL) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) is a very attractive reaction in the field of biomass transformation. In this work, a new porous Zr-containing catalyst with a phenate group in its structure was prepared by the coprecipitation of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid dipotassium salt and ZrOCl₂ (Zr-HBA) in water and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N₂ adsorption–desorption, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The Zr-HBA was used as the catalyst for CTH of EL to GVL in the presence of isopropanol, and the effects of temperature, time, and the amount of the catalyst on the reaction were studied. It was found that Zr-HBA was very active for the reaction and a GVL yield of 94.4% could be achieved. Meanwhile, the Zr-HBA could be reused at least five times without a notable decrease in activity and selectivity. The main reason for the high catalytic activity of the Zr-HBA was that the existence of a phenate in the structure of Zr-HBA increased the basicity of the catalyst, which is favourable for the CTH of EL.

Highly selective photooxidation of various biomass-derived chemicals to the corresponding carboxyl compounds is achieved over TiO₂-supported Au nanoparticles using atmospheric air as the oxidant.