NiyCo2-yP alloy catalysts with assistance of Y for boosting Low-pressure hydrogenation transformation of Biomass-derived levulinic acid or furfural in water

Abstract

Acquiring practical catalysts was crucial for promoting the application of advanced chemical transformations. Here, a series of Co-Ni-P catalysts with addition of Y were designed for hydrogenation transformation of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) or furfural (FAL) in water. The molar-composition-manipulated catalysts were characterized in Co-Ni phosphide alloy nanostructure with YPO4 enriched on surface and denoted as (YPO4)x/CoyNi2-yP. By comprehensive catalytic measurements, both Co:Ni ratio in phosphide alloy and amount of YPO4 were testified to be key factors to modulate intrinsic catalytic properties (hydrogen activation and acid catalysis) along Y-Co-Ni-P interface, the attractive and reproducible yield for desired product γ-valerolactone (up to 98 %) or cyclopentanone (up to 93%) could achieve under low H2 pressure of 0.1–0.5 MPa over the well modulated catalyst (YPO4)0.2/Co1.0Ni1.0P in comparison with high H2 pressure (beyond 1.0 MPa) required in most of literature systems, indicating that the efficiency and feasibility of these important biomass transformations could be greatly enhanced on the low-cost and robust (YPO4)x/CoyNi2-yP catalysts. These findings suggested that the phosphide-alloy engineering technique provided in this work could serve as a novel and practical method for innovating competitive catalysts to boost advanced heterogeneous catalysis applications as well as current aqueous hydrogenation transformations of biomass derivatives.