Facile Preparation of Oxygen-Vacancy-Mediated Mn3O4 for Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation of Furfural

The conversion of biobased furfural (FF) into furfuryl alcohol (FA) has immense industrial significance; however, the catalyst preparation methods for the conversion of FF to FA are demanding. We demonstrated a facile method, direct calcination of manganese(II) acetate tetrahydrate, to prepare an oxygen-vacant Mn3O4 catalyst for the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of FF to FA. The characterization results of oxygen-vacant Mn3O4 along with commercial and conventional Mn3O4 indicate that surface oxygen vacancies, strong acid-base properties, and a porous structure facilitate the high yield of FA (>99%) obtained from FF at 220 degrees C for 4 h in isopropanol. The oxygen vacancy-mediated Mn3O4 could be reused five times without noticeable activity loss. Moreover, we confirmed that Mn3O4 obtained from various manganese(II) salts by the direct calcination method also exhibited good performance for the CTH of FF to FA.

Automated summary

In this study, an oxygen-vacant Mn3O4 catalyst was prepared by direct calcination method for the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of FF to FA, achieving high yield of FA. The oxygen vacancy-mediated Mn3O4 showed good performance and reusability.