Hydrolysis of cellulose using heteropoly salts derivatives from H3PW12O40 with different redox properties as catalysts

Heteropoly salts containing different numbers of vanadium atoms (K4[PVW11O40] - KPWV1 andK6[PV3W9O40] - KPWV3) were synthesized from the heteropoly acid H3PW12O40 (HPW), and used as catalystsin hydrolysis of cellulose reactions in order to change the redox properties and verify whether the clusterof catalysts are involved in mechanism reaction. The hydrolysis reactions following a full 23 factorialdesign with the variables: mass ratio (catalyst/substrate), reaction time and temperature. The variables evaluatedwere significant at a 90% confidence level including second and third order interactions. According tothe conducted experiments, the catalysts were all active in hydrolysis. The best results occurred when HPWwas used suggesting that the redox properties did not have much influence in depolymerization of celluloseand the hydrolysis mechanism are assigned to acidic properties of the medium. The main products obtainedfrom the reactions were glucose and HMF, which are products of great interest in the chemical industry