Transfer hydrogenation of furfural catalyzed by multi-centers collaborative Ni-based catalyst and kinetic research

We propose a simple preparation route that converting biomass-derived furfural (FUR) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL) over a series of Ni-Mg-Al catalysts (NMA-n) with different molar ratios. Yield of FOL can reach 96.8 % over NMA-2 catalyst under the mild reaction conditions. There are three reasons for this high yield of FOL: (1) The introduction of different amounts of Mg and Al causes the synergistic effect to adjust the acidity and basicity of catalyst, optimal acid-base ratio (0.73:1) and Ni metal site achieve multi-centers collaborative catalysis. (2) Mesoporous structure of this catalyst provides a large number of adsorption sites. Furthermore, the highest O defect /O lattice ratio (1.79:1) create more oxygen vacancies, and then increase the adsorption sites of reactants, thereby making the catalytic activity of NMA-2 higher than most reported Ni-based catalysts. (3) Through kinetic studies, this excellent catalytic performance is related to activation energy (51.8 kJ/mol), which is lower than most reported CTH catalysts.