Selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived 2(5H)-furanone over Pt-Ni and Pt-Co bimetallic catalysts: From model surfaces to supported catalysts

• Furanone is hydrogenated to GBL with a high yield over Pt-based bimetallic catalysts.
• Ni-terminated bimetallic surface is the most active for furanone hydrogenation to GBL.
• TOF of supported catalysts follows the trend of Pt-Ni > Pt-Co > Pt > Ni > Co.
• Catalyst selectivity follows the trend of Pt-Ni > Ni > Pt-Co > Co > Pt.
• Good correlation between model surfaces and supported catalysts is obtained.

The selective hydrogenation of biomass-derived 2(5H)-furanone to γ-butyrolactone (GBL) was studied over Pt-Ni and Pt-Co bimetallic model surfaces and supported catalysts. The reactions of 2(5H)-furanone were investigated on Ni/Pt(1 1 1) and Co/Pt(1 1 1) bimetallic surfaces using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), revealing that the Ni-terminated bimetallic Ni-Pt-Pt(1 1 1) surface was more active and selective to produce GBL. Parallel density functional theory (DFT) calculations also confirmed the higher hydrogenation activity on Ni-Pt-Pt(1 1 1) due to bimetallic effect. The promising results on model surfaces were extended to SiO2-supported catalysts. The hydrogenation activity in terms of the initial turnover frequency (TOF) followed the trend of Pt-Ni > Pt-Co > Pt > Ni > Co, where the TOF over Pt-Ni was almost twice higher than that over Pt. With the excellent correlation between model surfaces and supported catalysts, the Pt-Ni bimetallic catalyst was identified as a promising option for the selective hydrogenation of 2(5H)-furanone to GBL.

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