Upgrading
biomass to chemicals and fuels requires development of
highly active and selective catalytic materials for important reactions
such as the aldol condensation. The aldol condensation is a critical
step to convert small molecules such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)
and furfuraldehyde (FA) to larger complexes that can be used for fuels
or chemicals. Whereas extensive work has examined aminosilica catalytic
materials for aldol chemistry, these materials have received limited
attention for HMF and FA conversion in spite of the capability of
these materials to catalyze reactions in a cooperative manner. In
this work, important structure–function relationships are investigated
that demonstrate the impact of micropores in these materials. Materials
are produced using a typical method (REG) and a method that produces
limited to no micropores (NMP). The materials are grafted with aminosilanes
and characterized using standard techniques. It is found that materials
with limited to no micropores are more active for the aldol reaction
and condensation for both FA with acetone and HMF with acetone. Additionally,
the materials are tested in recycle experiments that showed the NMP
catalyst retained higher activity after four catalytic cycles than
the REG catalyst. Overall, the results have important implications
for the design of materials for upgrading biomass into chemicals and
fuels.
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