Hydrogen peroxide as a green oxidant for transforming biorenewable carbohydrates into organic chemicals of industrial significance

Abstract

Biorefinery processes continue to seek sustainable reagents for organic transformations, especially for redox reactions. The liquid-phase oxidation reactions employing aqueous hydrogen peroxide (AQHP) do not necessitate an overpressure of gaseous oxidants, require relatively mild conditions, and produce water and oxygen as innocuous byproducts. AQHP is increasingly used in biomass value-addition pathways, often in the presence of a suitable homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst, for faster kinetics and improved selectivity. This work gives an account of the recent developments in using AQHP as a green oxidant to convert carbohydrates or carbohydrate-derived chemical intermediates into organic chemicals of industrial significance under chemocatalytic and chemoenzymatic conditions. Mechanistic insights, selectivity, and scalability of the oxidation reactions of carbohydrates and carbohydrate-derived chemical building blocks involving AQHP have been elaborated. The prospects and challenges associated with carbohydrate-centric biorefinery processes using AQHP as a green oxidant have been highlighted. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.