Highly Dispersed CoFe Catalyst for Selective Hydrogenation of Biomass‐Derived Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol

Abstract

Biorefinery to fabricate biofuels, chemicals, and materials has attracted much attention. Herein, a highly dispersed non‐noble CoFe immobilized on nitrogen‐doped carbon catalyst is prepared via a template sacrificial method. Owing to the synergetic effect of Co and Fe, the high dispersity of CoFe nanoparticles and large specific surface area, the optimized Co9‐Fe1‐NC catalyst exhibits high activity for the selective hydrogenation of furfural (FAL) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL). Hundred percentage conversion of FAL and 99% selectivity of FOL are obtained at 120 °C with 1 MPa H2 for 4 h, which is superior to most of the reported nonprecious catalysts. Moreover, the Co9‐Fe1‐NC catalyst can also catalyze the hydrogenation of nitro and carbonyl compounds efficiently. The mechanism of hydrogenation of FAL is revealed by density functional theory calculations. This work provides a promising synthetic strategy for the rational structural design of efficient selective hydrogenation catalysts.