Sulfonic Acid Functionalized Support Materials as Efficient Solid Acid Catalysts for 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Production from Sugars

The increasing demand for sustainable chemical processes has led to significant research focused on converting renewable biomass into high-value chemicals. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a versatile biomass derivative building block for numerous biofuels, polymer monomers, and valuable industrial compounds. As a result, the catalytic conversion of biomass and its constituent carbohydrates into HMF through hydrolysis, isomerization, and dehydration reactions has attracted extensive attention from scientific and industrial researchers. In this regard, sulfonic acid functionalized support materials have been extensively developed as efficient solid acid catalysts for the selective production of HMF owing to their strong Bro̷nsted acidity, excellent thermal stability, and easy recovery. Findings reveal that sulfonated support materials can achieve HMF yields ranging from 50 to 98% under optimized conditions (100–200 °C, 5 min to 8 h), with the catalyst structure and acid site distribution playing a critical role in performance. Strategies such as bifunctional catalyst design, pore structure optimization, and solvent modulation were identified as key factors to improving the catalytic efficiency and selectivity. This review aims to systematically summarize the recent advances in utilizing sulfonic acid functionalized support materials for the conversion of carbohydrate biomass feedstocks into HMF. It also discusses the relationship between the catalyst structure and activity, along with strategies to enhance HMF yield and selectivity. The insights presented in this review aim to guide the rational design of next-generation sulfonic acid functionalized catalysts, thereby advancing the sustainable valorization of biomass into platform chemicals such as HMF.