Surfactant-assisted synthesis of zero-dimensional iron nanomaterial for cellobiose hydrolysis

A cost-effective, magnetically separable iron nanomaterial (15 wt% Fe) was synthesized using cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a template and used for the hydrolysis of cellobiose at 120 °C. The m-FeCTB catalyst is ferromagnetic, mesoporous, and crystalline with a dominant γ-Fe2O3 phase; it has a high surface area (30 m2 g−1) and small particle size (60 nm). The cellobiose hydrolysis achieved a glucose yield of 60% and hydromethyl furfural (HMF) yield of 40% at 6 h. This catalytic activity with a turnover frequency of 0.037 s−1 and selectivity for glucose and HMF was attributed to high surface area, calcination temperature (400 °C), crystallinity, metallic site, surface acidity (26 μmol g−1) due to the presence of Fe2+, and small particle size. The m-FeCTB catalyst showed moderate recyclability over two cycles.