Highly Catalytic Performance of La2O3 in the Selective Transfer Hydrogenation of Biomass-derived Furfural

Abstract

Highly catalytic performance of La2O3 in transfer hydrogenation reactions was achieved following pretreatment involving a sequence of heat treatments under different atmospheric gases. Furfural (FFR) was converted to furfuryl alcohol (FFA) in a very selective manner (98% conversion, with 96% selectivity) using La2O3 that had been calcined under air at 923 K and treated under H2 at 673 K. Strongly basic sites and weakly acidic sites were generated after heat pretreatment.