Selective Hydrogenation of Furfural into Cyclopentanone Over Composite Metal Catalysts under Mild Conditions

Many TiO2-MCM-41 supported composite metal catalysts were prepared for selective hydrogenation of furfural to cyclopentanone under mild conditions. We report here that 2%Ru-5%Cu-4%WO3/TiO2-MCM-41 catalyst exhibits superior activity, the conversion of furfural can be as high as 99.75%, and the selectivity to cyclopetanone can be as high as 98.79%. The effects of Ru and Cu metal dispersion, the addition of WO3 species and reaction conditions were investigated carefully for good catalytic performance. A certain amount of WO3 nanoparticles is helpful for the better dispersion of metal atoms and selectivity to cyclopentanone, which might be ascribed to the changes of acidic sites of the catalyst surface. A certain amount of TiO2-anatase species were added to adjust the textural properties of the carrier, which also improved synergism catalytic performance for the selective hydrogenation of furfural to cyclopen -tanone. This kind of catalyst showed the great advantage for industrialization use of hydrogenation of furfural.