Preparation and catalytic performance of PSF-SO₃^--lLs porous microspheres for inulin hydrolysis

With the urgent need to transform the energy structure, developing catalysts for efficient biomass hydrolysis is essential. This development will play a key role in advancing biomass energy. However, traditional immobilized ionic liquid catalysts face challenges such as catalytic performance degradation and difficult recovery due to anion leaching during recycling. To address these issues, we proposed a novel solid-loading ionic liquid strategy. The PSF-SO₃^--lLs porous microspheres were prepared by covalently anchoring sulfonate anions to the polymer backbone and pairing them with triethylammonium sulfonate cations in combination with non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS). The catalysts showed high activity and excellent stability in the hydrolysis of inulin. Under optimal conditions (75°C, 20 w/w% inulin, 15% vol methanol, 2 w/w% catalyst loading), the reducing sugar yield (TRS) reached 97.00% within 3 h. Remarkably, the catalyst retained a TRS of 89.61% after 10 cycles without requiring regeneration.