Engineering Metal-Support Interactions of Ceria Supported Cobalt Catalysts for Durable Hydrogenation of Levulinic Acid to γ-Valerolactone

Abstract

The hydrogenation of levulinic acid (LA) to γ-valerolactone (GVL) represents a critical route for biomass valorization, yet catalyst deactivation remains a major challenge.Herein, we engineer metal-support interaction (MSI) in ceria-supported cobalt catalysts (xCoCe) via tuning cobalt loadings (0.5-5 wt%) to achieve durable and efficient LA upgrading. The optimized 1CoCe catalyst exhibits a 100% yield of GVL and a stability of 900 h in continuous operation surpassing the reported non-precious metal catalysts.Investigations including XPS, Raman, H 2 -TPR reveal that 1CoCe possesses higher contents of both Co 2+ and oxygen vacancies, which enhance the MSI effects that guarantees catalyst stability. This work highlights MSI modulation as a versatile strategy for designing non-precious metal catalysts, advancing scalable and sustainable biomass conversion technologies.