Budget MOF-derived catalyst to realize full conversion from furfural to furfuryl alcohol

Abstract

Furfuryl alcohol, a significant raw material for production of valuable chemicals, is currently manufactured from selective hydrogenation of furfural relying on polluting copper chromate and expensive noble metal catalysts. On account of inherent advantages, exploiting the low-cost and high-efficient catalysts based on metal-organic framework materials for the selective conversion of furfural is extraordinarily promising. Herein, a series of carbon-supported Cu-nanoparticles (denoted as HK-1-T, T refers to the calcination temperature) can be easily obtained via a one-step pyrolysis conversion of HKUST-1 at large scale. Fascinatingly, the constructed copper catalyst calcined at 350 °C (HK-1-350) exhibits striking activity for selective hydrogenation of furfural, affording complete conversion of furfural and 100% furfuryl alcohol selectivity at 120 °C under 1.5 MPa H2 within 3 h, with the superior cyclic stability at the same time proved by leaching test and reusability experiment. This report provides an attractive route for the highly efficient conversion of furfural to furfuryl alcohol of the industrial production employing non-noble metal catalysts.