Efficient transfer hydrogenation of biomass derived furfural and levulinic acid via magnetic zirconium nanoparticles: Experimental and kinetic study

A series of magnetic zirconium nanoparticles with varied Zr/Fe molar ratios were synthesized and developed as acid−base bifunctional catalysts in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of biomass-derived furfural (FFR) and levulinic acid (LA) using 2-propanol as both hydrogen donor and solvent. Zirconium constituents coated on nano-sized Fe 3 O 4 endowed the catalysts with abundant acid−base sites, moderate surface areas (94.0‒187.6 m 2 /g) and pore sizes (3.42–9.51 nm), thus giving nearly 100 % yields of furfuryl alcohol (FA) and γ-valerolactone (GVL) after 2 h of reaction. Particularly, competitive activation energy (E a ) for the CTH of FFR into FA over Zr 1 Fe 1 -300 was as low as 50.9 kJ/mol. Moreover, the easily separable nanocatalyst Zr 1 Fe 1 -150 was also applicable to CTH of various alkyl levulinates into GVL in high efficiency and could be reused for multiple cycles without obvious loss of its catalytic performance in the transfer hydrogenation of LA.