NiyCo2-yP alloy catalysts with assistance of Y for boosting Low-pressure hydrogenation transformation of Biomass-derived levulinic acid or furfural in water

Acquiring practical catalysts was crucial for promoting the application of advanced chemical transformations. Here, a series of Co-Ni-P catalysts with addition of Y were designed for hydrogenation transformation of biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) or furfural (FAL) in water. The molar-composition-manipulated catalysts were characterized in Co-Ni phosphide alloy nanostructure with YPO 4 enriched on surface and denoted as (YPO 4 ) x /Co y Ni 2-y P. By comprehensive catalytic measurements, both Co:Ni ratio in phosphide alloy and amount of YPO 4 were testified to be key factors to modulate intrinsic catalytic properties (hydrogen activation and acid catalysis) along Y-Co-Ni-P interface, the attractive and reproducible yield for desired product γ-valerolactone (up to 98 %) or cyclopentanone (up to 93%) could achieve under low H 2 pressure of 0.1–0.5 MPa over the well modulated catalyst (YPO 4 ) 0.2 /Co 1.0 Ni 1.0 P in comparison with high H 2 pressure (beyond 1.0 MPa) required in most of literature systems, indicating that the efficiency and feasibility of these important biomass transformations could be greatly enhanced on the low-cost and robust (YPO 4 ) x /Co y Ni 2-y P catalysts. These findings suggested that the phosphide-alloy engineering technique provided in this work could serve as a novel and practical method for innovating competitive catalysts to boost advanced heterogeneous catalysis applications as well as current aqueous hydrogenation transformations of biomass derivatives.