Preparation of 3-aceta mido-5-acetylfuran from N-acetylglucosamine and chitin using biobased deep eutectic solvents as catalysts

3-Acetamido-5-acetylfuran (3A5AF) is an important platform compound, possessing very promising application prospects. Herein, we propose a new approach to convert N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) and chitin to 3A5AF using biobased deep eutectic solvents (DESs) containing choline chloride and various organic acids or polyols. A comparison of catalytic capacity showed that a DES made with choline chloride/citric acid (CCCA) possesses the optimum catalytic properties, which lead to a maximum yield for 3A5AF of 47.1 mol% and 5.0 mol% from NAG and chitin, respectively, at 210 °C in N,N-dimethylacetamide solvent with CaCl2·2H2O as an additive. Moreover, CCCA showed excellent recyclability and retained over 63.6% of its original activity after five cycles of use. In addition, the 3A5AF product was obtained with 99.0% purity by simple extraction and crystallization. This research provided a new avenue for 3A5AF production from renewable chitin resources.