WOx modified Cu/Al2O3 as a high-performance catalyst for the hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-propanediol

• WOx species present as isolated WO4 structure on Cu-WOx/Al2O3 catalysts.
• The isolated WO4 species could promote the isomerization of glucose to fructose.
• The hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-PDO follows a bifunctional reaction route.
• The highest 1,2-PDO selectivity of 55.4% was obtained on Cu-WOx(0.8)/Al2O3.

Glucose is one of the most important platform molecules of biomass in nature. The selective hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-PDO is still a challenge. However, The hydrogenolysis of fructose has higher activity and selectivity to 1,2-PDO. Therefore, A series of Cu-WOx/Al2O3 catalysts with high activity for glucose isomerization to fructose and fructose hydrogenolysis to 1,2-PDO were designed for glucose hydrogenolysis to 1,2-PDO. The W surface density was controlled as low as 0.8 W/nm2. The low W surface density could make the WOx species present as isolated WO4 structure, which could only provide more Lewis acid sites. As a result, the isolated WO4 species could form a complex with glucose and then promote the isomerization of glucose to fructose. The isolated WO4 species also have coverage, dispersion, and electronic effects on copper sites, resulting more stable copper sites and proper amount of hydrogenation sites on Cu-WOx/Al2O3 surface. The correlations between the ratio of Lewis acid amount to Cu surface area and the selectivity of 1,2-PDO suggest that the hydrogenolysis of glucose to 1,2-PDO follows the bifunctional reaction route which contains the reactions on Lewis acid and metal sites. Furthermore, the highest 1,2-PDO selectivity of 55.4% was obtained on Cu-WOx(0.8)/Al2O3.

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