Highly Dispersed CoFe Catalyst for Selective Hydrogenation of Biomass-Derived Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol

Biorefinery to fabricate biofuels, chemicals, and materials has attracted much attention. Herein, a highly dispersed non-noble CoFe immobilized on nitrogen-doped carbon catalyst is prepared via a template sacrificial method. Owing to the synergetic effect of Co and Fe, the high dispersity of CoFe nanoparticles and large specific surface area, the optimized Co-9-Fe-1-NC catalyst exhibits high activity for the selective hydrogenation of furfural (FAL) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL). Hundred percentage conversion of FAL and 99% selectivity of FOL are obtained at 120 degrees C with 1 MPa H-2 for 4 h, which is superior to most of the reported nonprecious catalysts. Moreover, the Co-9-Fe-1-NC catalyst can also catalyze the hydrogenation of nitro and carbonyl compounds efficiently. The mechanism of hydrogenation of FAL is revealed by density functional theory calculations. This work provides a promising synthetic strategy for the rational structural design of efficient selective hydrogenation catalysts.