Vapor phase hydrogenation of furfural over nickel mixed metal oxide catalysts derived from layered double hydroxides

• Furfural hydrogenation was investigated utilizing non-precious mixed metal oxides (Ni-Co-Al and Ni-Mg-Al).
• Furfuryl alcohol selectivity of ∼80% was achieved for all catalysts tested, but 1.1Ni-0.8Co-Al had the highest TOF (1690 h−1).
• XAS, XPS, and STEM suggested the formation of bimetallic nanoparticles of Ni and Co after reduction.

The hydrogenation of furfural is investigated over various reduced nickel mixed metal oxides derived from layered double hydroxides (LDHs) containing Ni-Mg-Al and Ni-Co-Al. Upon reduction, relatively large Ni(0) domains develop in the Ni-Mg-Al catalysts, whereas in the Ni-Co-Al catalysts smaller metal particles of Ni(0) and Co(0), potentially as alloys, are formed, as evidenced by XAS, XPS, STEM and EELS. All the reduced Ni catalysts display similar selectivities towards major hydrogenation products (furfuryl alcohol and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol), though the side products varied with the catalyst composition. The 1.1Ni-0.8Co-Al catalyst showed the greatest activity per titrated site when compared to the other catalysts, with promising activity compared to related catalysts in the literature. The use of base metal catalysts for hydrogenation of furanic compounds may be a promising alternative to the well-studied precious metal catalysts for making biomass-derived chemicals if catalyst selectivity can be improved in future work by alloying or tuning metal-oxide support interactions

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