Efficient hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol by magnetically recoverable RuCo bimetallic catalyst

Abstract

A magnetically recoverable RuCo bimetallic catalyst was reported for the catalytic hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol under ambient H2 pressure. The magnetic catalyst was prepared by H2 treatment of the RuCo composite precursor from a facile one-pot hydrolysis of Co and Ru salts by NaBH4 solution. This catalyst can totally convert furfural to 98–100% furfuryl alcohol at 120 °C under 1 bar H2 in isopropanol or water using only molecular H2 as hydrogen source. Moreover, the catalyst showed excellent stability during recycling test and can be easily and completely recovered by magnet from reaction solution. The influence of Ru/Co ratio and H2-treatment temperature was studied, which were shown to be important for the structural evolution and the metal interaction in RuCo active sites, based on the comprehensive characterizations including XRD, TGA, TEM, XPS, H2-TPR, CO adsorbed DRIFT-IR. It was demonstrated that the cooperative Ru0–Co0 bimetallic active sites in strong interaction can significantly promote activity and selectivity of the catalyst due to an enhanced adsorption and activation of furfural and H2, and simultaneously created a strong magnetism in the RuCo catalyst for simple physical separation.

Keywords

• Composite material
• Hydrogenation
• Magnetic catalyst
• Metal interaction
• Unsaturated aldehyde