One-pot tandem synthesis of 5-ethoxymethylfurfural as a potential biofuel

Abstract

5-Ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF) is a potential biofuel, fuel additive and raw material in the chemical and beverage industry. It can be obtained from the etherification of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) with ethanol catalyzed by acid. In this work, a green methodology was developed to produce this product through a one-pot tandem reaction, starting directly from fructose, eliminating the unnecessary process steps and the isolation of intermediates. For this, heating by microwave irradiation and p-sulfonic acid calix[4]arene (CX4SO₃H) as an organocatalyst were used. EMF was obtained in 88% yield by heating a mixture of ethanol, fructose and CX4SO₃H (1.0 mol%) at 140 °C for 20 min through the tandem one-pot microwave-assisted reaction.