WCl6 catalyzed cellulose degradation at 80 °C and lower in [BMIM]Cl

Lilong Zhou; Shanshan Zhang; Zhengjie Li; Zhikun Zhang; Runjing Liu; Jimmy Yun

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.02.050

WCl₆ catalyzed cellulose degradation at 80 °C and lower in [BMIM]Cl

Carbohydr Polym. 2019 May 15:212:289-296. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.02.050. Epub 2019 Feb 19.

Authors

Lilong Zhou¹, Shanshan Zhang², Zhengjie Li², Zhikun Zhang², Runjing Liu², Jimmy Yun³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Provience 050018, PR China. Electronic address: lanruohe@126.com.
² College of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Provience 050018, PR China.
³ College of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Provience 050018, PR China; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Australia, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: jimmy.yun@unsw.edu.au.

PMID: 30832859
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.02.050

Abstract

Degradation of cellulose to reducing sugar is the key step for the conversion of cellulose to valuable chemicals. Cellulose was degraded by WCl₆ in 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazole chloride at 80 °C and lower. 83% and 85.5% yield of total reducing sugar was gotten at 70 and 80 °C, respectively. Compared with inorganic acid, heteropoly acid, acidic ionic liquid and other metal chlorides, WCl₆ has shown better catalytic performance for degradation of cellulose to reducing sugar. The effect of reaction temperature, reaction time, WCl₆ amount and cellulose concentration were investigated. Degradation of cellulose by WCl₆ in 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazole chloride is a zero reaction. WCl₆ also showed excellent catalytic performance for the degradation of nature cellulose and lignocellulose. Catalyst can be reused at least 5 times without decrease of reducing sugar yield. The mechanism of degradation of WCl₆ was also suggested.

Keywords: Cellulose; Degradation; Ionic liquids; Reducing sugars; WCl(6).