S1 Supporting Information Heterogeneous Acidic TiO 2 Nanoparticles for Efficient Conversion of Biomass Derived Carbohydrates Chung-Hao Kuo, a Altug S. Poyraz, a Lei Jin, a Yongtao Meng, a Lakshitha Pahalagedara, a Sheng-Yu Chen, a David A. Kriz, a Curtis Guild, a Anton Gudz, a and Steven L. Suib* a,b a Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, U-3060, 55 North Eagleville Rd., Storrs, Connecticut 06269 (USA). Fax: +1 860 486 2981; Tel: +1 860 486 2797; E-mail: steven.suib@uconn.edu b Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, U-3060, 55 North Eagleville Rd., Storrs, Connecticut 06269 (USA) 1.1 Detailed methods for catalyst characterization The catalysts were characterized using several techniques: Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) patterns were obtained using a Rigaku UltimaIV X-ray diffractometer with Cu Kɑ radiation and a beam voltage of 40 kV and 44 mA beam current. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) micrographs were taken on a Zeiss DSM 982 Gemini emission scanning microscope with a Schottky Emitter at an accelerating voltage of 2 kV with a beam current of 1 μA. Samples were ultrasonically dispersed in methanol and deposited onto a silicon wafer. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) studies were carried out using a JEOL 2010 transmission electron microscope with an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. The samples were prepared by dispersing the material in methanol. A drop of the dispersion was placed on a carbon coated copper grid and allowed to dry. Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) were performed on a Hi-Res TA 2950 thermogravimetric analyzer with 60 mL/min of air flow from 25 to 1000 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C/min. Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) was carried Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Green Chemistry This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013