Functionalized Materials for Biomass Conversion into Valuable Chemicals: Green Approaches

Biomass valorization is, nowadays, considered an eco-sustainable approach for the biofuels and valuable chemicals production. [1] Generally, triglyceride part is used to obtain alternative fuels and additives, while cellulose is applied in the synthesis of bio-valuable chemicals that can replace the corresponding petrochemical derivatives. The research carried out in the labs of ISMN - Palermo is focused on the design, synthesis and application of functionalized materials for the valorization of both parts of biomass.[2] Some of the studied chemical processes include the acid-catalyzed acetalization, etherification, esterification reactions (solketal [3], HMF [4], triacetins,[5] biodiesel [6]) or the metal-catalyzed hydrogenation of platform molecules (LA [7], GVL, diols [8]). In the research activity, special attention is due to the circular chemistry on the 1) use of waste both for the synthesis of new materials and valuable products 2) use of sustainable procedure and eco-compatible solvent 3) process efficiency. As concern the sustainability of the chemical processes, efforts are being made to turn them into "green" processes, working on the procedures (MW-assisted reactions, catalyst amount, green solvents) and exploiting heterogeneous catalysis (separation, regeneration and recycling of the material). As concern the nanomaterials, highly porous silica or titania were functionalized, by using several approaches, with organic frameworks or inorganic (M) catalytic functions depending on the organic reaction in which they were applied. Recently, the use of MW assisted reactions was applied both to the synthesis of materials [9] and their performance [3,6,10], implying high efficiency of the whole chemical process accompanied by a decrease in the processing cost. Finally, the study of the surface and structural properties of the catalysts analyzed by several techniques (XPS, XRD, TGA, BET...) allow to correlate the catalytic performances of the synthetized materials with their physical and chemical properties.