Selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol through hydrogenation spillover over amorphized HA zeolite encapsulated platinum clusters.

Design of heterogeneous catalyst to achieve efficient conversion of biomass to high added-value chemicals is still very attractive. Herein, taking industrially important selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol as an example, the designed amorphized HA zeolite encapsulation of platinum clusters (denoted as Pt@HA) exhibited excellent catalytic selectivity at totally conversion of the reactant furfural, along with good reusability and poison resistance ability. The selected amorphized HA zeolite with very small pore size constrained the reactant furfural to be reacted through hydrogen spillover process at zeolite surface, instead of to be adsorbed and activated onto Pt surface. Resulting from the stronger interaction between nucleophilic oxygen atom of aldehyde group and acid site at HA zeolite surface than that of furan ring group, furfural preferred to adsorb onto Pt@HA surface with the end of aldehyde group rather than the end of furan ring group, thus facilitating the spilled H atom to react with aldehyde group to give desired furfuryl alcohol product exclusively. [Display omitted] • Pt@HA exhibited remarkable catalytic property in hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol via hydrogen spillover. • Spillover process disfavored activation of aldehyde group and furan ring simultaneously in one furfural molecule. • Acid sites on HA zeolite surface promoted adsorption of aldehyde group to facilitate its hydrogenation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]