Performance and characterization of rhenium-modified Rh–Ir alloy catalyst for one-pot conversion of furfural into 1,5-pentanediol

Abstract

One-pot selective conversion of highly concentrated furfural to 1,5-pentanediol (1,5-PeD) was carried out over Rh-added Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ catalysts through two-step reaction temperatures. Over the optimized catalyst, Rh(0.66 wt%)–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂, the maximum yield of 1,5-PeD was 71.1% from highly concentrated furfural (50 wt%) and 78.2% from diluted furfural (10 wt%). These values were higher than those obtained with Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ or Pd–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ catalysts. Rh–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ showed much higher activity in the hydrogenation of furfural to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol intermediate in the low temperature step than Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂, although the hydrogenation activity was lower than that of Pd–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂. A long reaction time in the low temperature step is necessary to obtain a good 1,5-PeD yield over Rh–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ in two-step reaction of furfural. The hydrogenolysis activity of Rh–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ for tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol to 1,5-PeD in the high temperature step was higher than that of Pd–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ and was comparable to that of Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂. The characterization results of TPR, XRD, XANES, EXAFS, STEM-EDX and FT-IR of adsorbed CO indicated that Rh–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ catalysts showed the structure of Ir–Rh alloy particles partially covered with ReO_x species. The hydrogenation activity of Rh–Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ for the furan ring was higher than those of the mixture of Rh–Ir/SiO₂ and Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂ or the mixture of Rh–ReO_x/SiO₂ and Ir–ReO_x/SiO₂. Both Ir–Rh alloy formation and ReO_x modification of alloy particles are essential for the high hydrogenation activity.