Selective oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to 2, 5-diformylfuran (DFF) with molecular oxygen is realized with an ?-MnO2 catalyst under mild conditions. In this work, ?-MnO2 exhibited the best performance among the samples examined. Meanwhile, solvent shows a significant effect on the product selectivity and isopropanol is found good for improving the selectivity of DFF. 93.2 % conversion of HMF was achieved at 140 ?C for 4 h with 84.3 % selectivity of DFF. Moreover, ?-MnO2 catalyst keeps good reusability in recycling for five times. The reaction pathway indicated that the lattice oxygen species on ?-MnO2 is involved in the selective oxidation of hydroxyl group in HMF molecule.