Metal-doped vesicles approach towards rattle-type Pd@HASs nanoreactors for selective hydrogenation of furfural

The hydrogenation of furfural (FFA) to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFOL) is of immense commercial significance. This transformation, however, remains challenging and often requires high temperature and pressure to achieve high selectivity, or more importantly, the design and development of novel catalysts. Herein, we develop the rattle-typ (Pd@HASs) nanoreactors for selective hydrogenation of FFA to tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol at mild condition via a regulatable metal-doped vesicles method, which was assembled from the double hydrophobic anionic surfactant AOT (sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate). The structure and growth process of the Pd@HASs were analyzed by HRTEM, SEM, XPS and DLS. Through the regulation means which modulated the metal coordination or anionic environment, the metal-doped vesicles with tunable size and distribution of metal nanoparticles could convert to a series of Pd@HASs with different cavity sizes from 32 nm to 144 nm. The Pd@HASs exhibited great selectivity in FFA hydrogenation, with a tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol yield of >99 % within an hour at 120 °C, 10 bar H 2 pressure. Among the nanoreactors with different cavity sizes, Pd@HASs with a 50 nm cavity has the best performance. This work provides a new way for the design and synthesis of hollow alumina nanospheres encapsulated metal nanoparticles nanoreactors, and the selective hydrogenation of FFA at mild condition.