Regulation of Selectivity on Furfural Hydrogenation by Tailored Active Sites over Metal Nanoparticle-Decorated Zeolite Catalysts

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Furfural with a furan ring and a carbonyl group serves as a high-value-added chemical derived from biomass due to the wide application of its corresponding hydrogenation products as various chemical intermediates. The key to a selectively catalytic hydrogenation system lies in the rational design and construction of suitable catalysts to promote specific reaction pathways. In this study, a pair of bifunctional metal nanoparticle-decorated zeolite catalysts is synthesized to study the synergism between the metal nanoparticle site and the acid site on furfural selective hydrogenation. Compared with the conventional zeolite-supported counterpart, the supports with HCl etching on Co/La-Y-H catalysts possess remarkably improved activity and selectivity in rearrangement hydrogenation, which can convert >99% of the furfural into cyclopentanone/cyclopentanol with 81.9% selectivity, close to 2.7 times higher than that of Co/La-Y (30.5%). The enhancement is strongly related to the acid etching on La-Y supports, which promotes electron transfer between the metal nanoparticle, Co, and the support, La-Y-H zeolite, and creates a greater ratio of Lewis acid and additional strong acid sites, thereby contributing to the regulation of selectivity in furfural hydrogenation.