The development of an environmentally benign process for the hydrolysis of cellulose into reducing sugars can be one of the key technologies for making full use of cellulosic biomass in the future. Here, a biomass char sulfonic acid (BC-SO 3 H)-catalyzed hydrolysis of cellulose in water was achieved under microwave irradiation. The BC-SO 3 H catalysts prepared cheaply from natural bamboo, cotton and starch, showed a much higher turnover number (TON, 1.33-1.73) for this reaction compared to a dilute H 2 SO 4 solution (TON, 0.02), which was likely due to their strong affinity to b-1,4-glycosidic bonds of cellulose. In addition, microwave irradiation played key roles in activating cellulose molecules and strengthening particle collision, which can lead to a remarkable acceleration effect on this heterogeneously catalytic process.

The development of a simple, efficient, and environmentally benign method for the sulfoxidation of sulfides with aqueous hydrogen peroxide is of importance for the large-scale industrial production of sulfoxides. This article first discloses that various aryl and alkyl sulfides, without help of any catalyst and extra solvent, can be directly oxidized by 30% aqueous hydrogen peroxide to the corresponding sulfoxides with good to excellent yield at 60 °C. Furthermore, the present method has outstanding advantages, with regard to reaction rate and sulfoxide yield, compared with a series of organic solvents-mediated reactions.

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