Gallium and tin exchanged Y zeolites for glucose isomerisation and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural production

This study demonstrates the use of gallium and tin modified Y zeolites as catalysts for the conversion of glucose into fructose, mannose and 5-Hydroxymethyl furfural. These catalysts can be synthesised via a simple and scalable procedure that uses commercially available Y zeolite. The catalysts were characterised by various techniques including elemental analysis, electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy. It is found that tin containing Y zeolite generate a glucose conversion of 36 % and total product yield of 17 % in water. Meanwhile, gallium containing Y zeolite shows an HMF yield of 33 % when reactions were conducted in DMSO. The recyclability of tin and gallium containing Y zeolites were studied in DMSO and the activities of both materials were shown to remain stable. Furthermore, the spent catalysts can be regenerated via calcination in air.