In Situ Synthesis of Cu Nanoparticles on Carbon for Highly Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol by Using Pomelo Peel as the Carbon Source

A facile approach was developed to directly synthesize carbon-supported metal nanoparticles with pomelo peel as the carbon source and metal nitrate solution as the metal source. Fe/C, Co/C, Ni/C, and Cu/C catalysts were prepared after calcination in N2 without further reduction. The metal nanoparticles and formation mechanism were investigated by multiple techniques such as XRD, HRTEM, XPS, FTIR spectra, SEM, and TG-MS thermal analysis. In the case of furfural hydrogenation, Cu/C catalyst exhibited the best activity and exclusive selectivity to produce furfuryl alcohol with complete conversion, and excellent selectivity can be maintained at a higher temperature of 240 °C. The particle size of Cu nanoparticles can be tuned by the calcination temperature and metal loading for improving catalytic activity. The excellent performance of Cu nanoparticles was also studied by density functional theory calculation, agreeing well with the experiments.