Construction of Rich Cu-Re-Ox Interface for the Catalytic Hydrogen Transfer of Furfural

Abstract

The transformation of furfural to a variety of high value-added products arouses a lot of industrial interest, which provides new strategy for the available replacement of fossil fuel by renewable resources. In our recent work, we designed a series of highly efficient and stable catalysts using one-pot so-gel method to configure a well-defined ternary Cu-Re-AlOx system. A reversal loading model by ReOx clusters depositing on Cu nanoparticles is constructed and dispersed on the alumina bulk phase. Rich Cu-Re-Ox interface with strong bimetallic synergy are figured out and evidenced by the electron transferring from Cu atoms to ReOx, which can be regulated in terms of the surface arrangement of Re atoms. Both operando-FTIR spectra and DFT calculation illustrate the furfural hydrogenation mechanism proceeding via the dehydroxylation reaction path to produce 2-methylfuran. The Cu5Re/Al2O3 with appropriate Cu/Re atomic ratio displays the promoted exposure of active Cu centre and reactant-activation behaviour, resulting in the ultra-fast reaction rate of 6.05 mol2-MF·molM-1·h-1 under low activation energy barrier at only 190 °C. This work highlights the utility of Cu-Re based catalytic system for the selective hydrogenation of furfural by one-pot synthesis.