Hydrogenation of fructose over magnetic catalyst derived from hydrotalcite precursor

•The magnetic catalysts exhibited high activity in fructose hydrogenation.•The effect of the addition of glucose in fructose hydrogenation was investigated.•The recycled catalysts sustained high catalytic activity in fructose hydrogenation.

Ni/Cu/Al/Fe hydrotalcite-like compound was synthesized by a co-precipitation method. The activity of the reduced hydrotalcite-like precursor for the hydrogenation of fructose was investigated. The effects of various reaction conditions on the production of sorbitol and mannitol were investigated in detail. The properly high reduction temperature could obviously enhance catalyst activity. XRD and XPS tests provided the essential properties of the precursor and prepared catalyst. A catalyst recycling experiment demonstrated that Ni4.63Cu1Al1.82Fe0.79 was a better magnetic catalyst and it could be reused more than three times.

Graphical abstractMagnetic Ni/Cu/Al/Fe catalysts were prepared by a co-precipitation method, followed by hydrogen reduction under high temperature. The specific preparation method was simple and easy. The total yield towards mannitol and sorbitol reached 99.8% at 100% fructose conversion.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (205 K)Download as PowerPoint slide