Efficient transfer hydrogenation of biomass derived furfural and levulinic acid via magnetic zirconium nanoparticles: Experimental and kinetic study

A series of magnetic zirconium nanoparticles with varied Zr/Fe molar ratios were synthesized and developed as acid - base bifunctional catalysts in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of biomass-derived furfural (FFR) and levulinic acid (LA) using 2-propanol as both hydrogen donor and solvent. Zirconium constituents coated on nano-sized Fe3O4 endowed the catalysts with abundant acid-base sites, moderate surface areas (94.0-187.6 m(2)/g) and pore sizes (3.42-9.51 nm), thus giving nearly 100 % yields of furfuryl alcohol (FA) and gamma-valerolactone (GVL) after 2 h of reaction. Particularly, competitive activation energy (E-a) for the CTH of FFR into FA over Zr1Fe1-300 was as low as 50.9 kJ/mol. Moreover, the easily separable nanocatalyst Zr1Fe1-150 was also applicable to CTH of various allcyl levulinates into GVL in high efficiency and could be reused for multiple cycles without obvious loss of its catalytic performance in the transfer hydrogenation of LA.