Aqueous-phase Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol over Ordered-mesoporous Carbon Supported Pt Catalysts Prepared by Onestep Modified Soft-template Self-assembly Method.

Abstract

Ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) has attracted a great deal of attention as catalyst support due to their tunable morphological and textural properties. In this study, the characteristics and catalytic properties of OMC-supported Pt catalysts prepared by one-step modified soft-template self-assembly method (Pt/OMC-one-pot) were compared to the Pt impregnated on OMC, activated carbon (AC), and nonuniform meso/macroporous carbon (MC) in the selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol (FA) under mild conditions (50°C, 2 MPa H2). Larger Pt particle size (~4 nm) was obtained on the Pt/OMC-one-pot comparing to all the impregnated ones, in which the Pt particle sizes were in the range 0.5 - 2 nm. Reduction step was not necessary on the Pt/OMC-one-pot and among the catalysts studied, the Pt/OMC-one-pot exhibited the highest furfural conversion and FA selectivity under aqueous conditions. The use of methanol as the solvent resulted in the formation of solvent product (2-furaldehyde dimethyl acetal) instead. The amount of Pt being deposited, location of Pt particles, and metal-support interaction strongly affected recyclability of the catalysts because some larger size Pt particles with weak metal-support interaction could be leached out during the liquid-phase reaction, rendering similar catalytic performances of the various porous carbon supported catalysts after the 3rd cycle of run.