A novel synthesis of zirconium tannate with high stability: new insight into the structure of the catalyst for hydrogenation

With the increasing demand for fossil energy and carbon resources, improving the efficiency of fossil resource utilization and exploring new ways of carbon resource utilization have become the key issues facing social development. Here, we successfully synthesized zirconium tannate(Zr-TA) from tannic acid(TA) and zirconium tetrachloride(ZrCl4) for catalytic transfer hydrogenation(CTH) of furfural(FF) to furfurfuryl alcohol(FA) with 100 % conversion of FF and 98.2 % yield of FA at 120 degrees C for 80 min. The physical properties of the catalysts and the optimum conditions for hydrogenation reaction were explored through different characterization techniques and experiments. In addition, the Zr-TA could be recycled eight times without significant loss of activity and possible reaction mechanism were proposed.