Ring-opening of furfuryl alcohol to pentanediol with hierarchically structured Cu-MFI catalysts

Metal-acid bifunctional catalysts often encounter deactivation troubles due to carbon deposition and metal agglomeration. Herein, a hierarchically porous structured Cu-MFI-AEH catalyst was developed for selective ring-opening of furfuryl alcohol to pentanediols, which exhibits >90% yield of pentanediols and improved stability. The synergistic effect of nano-copper species and Bronsted acidic protons boosts the ring opening of furfuryl alcohol. This was also disclosed by the DFT technique that small-size Cu possesses better hydrogen dissociation performance, and the introduction of equivalent to Si (OH) Al equivalent to (Bronsted acidic protons) promotes the adsorption of furfuryl alcohol and reduces the ring opening energy barrier of furfuryl alcohol. The obtained highly porous catalyst possesses a large external surface area and large pore volume, which are beneficial to offer accessible active sites and accelerate product transport, eventually resulting in superior anti-coking performance. Furthermore, the abundant silanol groups on the MFI surface produced by ammonia treatment could act as an anchoring site for grafting Cu species, resulting in strong metal-support interaction and highly anti-sintering performance. The results reported herein provide a novel strategy to improve the stability and activity of copper-based catalysts. It also inspires the conversion of biomass resources into high value-added oxygenated fine chemicals.