A Supported Ni Catalyst Produced from Ni-Al Hydrotalcite-Like Precursor for Reduction of Furfuryl Alcohol to Tetrahydrofurfuryl Alcohol by NaBH4 in Water

Tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA) is a kind of high value-added compound in industry, which can be obtained from biomass chemical engineering. However, Synthesis of THFA under mild condition with green hydrogen donors remains a big challenge. In this article, a supported Ni catalyst derived from Ni-Al hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTs) as precursors for the reduction of furfuryl alcohol (FA) into THFA with NaBH4 as reducing agent in water was first reported. As a result, Ni/Al2O3-HT exhibited high catalytic activity for the transformation, and THFA was achieved in 100 % yield at 60 degrees C for 60 min. Moreover, Ni/Al2O3-HT could be recycled at least seven times without the loss of its activity. Under optimized conditions, the reduction reaction of several furan and ketone compounds was investigated. A possible mechanism for the reduction of FA to afford THFA was also proposed.