Research Article pubs.acs.org/acscatalysis
Kinetic and Mechanistic Study of Glucose Isomerization Using Homogeneous Organic Brønsted Base Catalysts in Water Jack M. Carraher, Chelsea N. Fleitman, and Jean-Philippe Tessonnier* Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, United States NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), Ames, Iowa 50011, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: The isomerization of glucose to fructose represents a key intermediate step in the conversion of cellulosic biomass to fuels and renewable platform chemicals, namely, 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF), 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), and levulinic acid (LA). Although both Lewis acids and Brønsted bases catalyze this reaction, the basecatalyzed pathway received significantly less attention due to its lower selectivity to fructose and the poor yields achieved (