Transformation of fructose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde (HMF) via homogeneous Br <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si1.svg"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">o</mml:mi> <mml:mo>¨</mml:mo> </m

One important renewable platform compound for fuel production and chemical industries is 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which can be produced from the dehydration of fructose. Due to the high reactivity of its functional groups and the formation of by-products, preparing HMF in high selectivity and excellent yield is challenging. In this study, fructose dehydration to HMF under an acid catalyst was performed using gamma irradiation, a new alternative method for this reaction. Effects of various reaction parameters, including the type of acid catalyst, acid loading, fructose concentration, solvent media, and dose of gamma irradiation, were determined. The reaction process using 0.1 M of fructose with 0.05 M of HCl in DMSO solvent under 20 kGy of gamma irradiation is the optimum condition, which provides a good HMF yield of 68.5 %. Interestingly, this method can produce the large-scale production of HMF with an excellent yield of 78.4 %, and pure HMF was successfully isolated from the reaction (62.3 %). Therefore, the dehydration of fructose into HMF with an acid catalyst under gamma irradiation was achieved and can be developed to scale up production, which will be an alternative for industrial application in the future. • The fructose dehydration into HMF with HCl under gamma irradiation was successfully prepared. • The large scale of HMF production was investigated, and this method produced HMF in a high yield of up to 78.4 %. • High purity of HMF can be isolated from the reaction and further used as a chemical platform for other reactions in the future.