Selective Conversion of into Lactic Acid over Amine-Modified Sn-β.

Amine-modified Sn-β was synthesized to improve the yield of lactic acid produced from . After studying the growth of , we selected with the highest sugar content of 46.7% after 8 days of culture as the reaction substrate. The results showed that the yield of lactic acid from was greatly increased after being catalyzed by 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS)-modified Sn-β. After the pretreatment of in an ice bath ultrasound, under the optimal reaction conditions (190 °C and 5 h), the yield of lactic acid reached the highest (37%). The acid-base characterization results of the catalyst confirmed that there are both Lewis acidic sites and medium-strength basic sites in the catalyst. Both of these sites can promote the hydrolysis of , while the Lewis acidic sites can promote the production of lactic acid and the basic sites can effectively inhibit the production of the byproduct 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). This study proved that this amination catalyst is a useful strategy to increase the yield of lactic acid.