Surface synergistic effect in well-dispersed Cu/MgO catalysts for highly efficient vapor-phase hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds

The highly efficient vapor-phase selective hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds (e.g. furfural (FAL) and dimethyl 1,4-cyclohexane dicarboxylate (DMCD)) to corresponding alcohols was achieved excellently over well-dispersed MgO-supported copper catalysts (Cu/MgO), which were prepared by an alternative separate nucleation and aging step method. The characterization results revealed that the structure and catalytic performance of the as-formed Cu/MgO catalysts were profoundly affected by Cu loading. Especially, the results confirmed that the decrease in the Cu loading could lead to the improvement of metal dispersion and the formation of more surface strong Lewis basic sites. In the vapor-phase selective hydrogenation of FAL to furfuryl alcohol (FOL) and DMCD to 1,4-cyclohexane dimethanol (CHDM), two Cu/MgO catalysts with Cu loadings of 27.6 wt% and 70.9 wt% exhibited superior catalytic performance with higher conversions (>97.3%) and selectivities to alcohols (>96.0%) compared to the other supported ones. The high efficiency of the as-formed Cu/MgO catalysts was mainly attributed to the surface synergistic catalytic effect between the catalytically active metallic copper species and the Lewis basic sites, which held the key to the hydrogenation reaction related to the hydrogen dissociation and the activation of the carbonyl groups.