Magnetic N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes Immobilized Zirconium-Based Biomass-Derived Hybrid for Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation of Ethyl Levulinate

Effective structural design can make the catalyst have higher specific surface area and dispersed active sites, thus endowing the catalyst higher catalytic efficiency. In this work, magnetic nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (CNT) was introduced as the support to immobilize the zirconium-based biomass-derived hybrid (Zr-FDCA) through solvothermal method, in which specific surface area had significantly increased to improve the dispersibility of zirconium, thus improving the adsorption over the catalyst to ethyl levulinate (EL). In addition, the introduced nitrogen served as the basic sites to boost the proton transfer in catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) reaction. As a result, the prepared Zr-FDCA@CNT exhibited an ideal catalytic performance in CTH of EL into γ-valerolactone. Gratifyingly, Zr-FDCA@CNT also showed magnetism and good reusability, which could be easily separated from the reaction mixture and no significant loss in the activity after reuse for four runs. Graphical Abstract Schematic for CTH of EL over Zr-FDCA@CNT