Acetic acid-regulated mesoporous zirconium-furandicarboxylate hybrid with high lewis acidity and lewis basicity for efficient conversion of furfural to furfuryl alcohol

The synthesis of porous material endowed with high Lewis acid-base sites for catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of carbonyl compounds to their corresponding alcohols has become a hot topic. Herein, a mesoporous metal-organic hybrid (Zr-FDCA) was prepared through facile self-assembly of biomass based 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and zirconium by using acetic acid as the modulator. Its catalytic activity was tested by CTH of furfural (FAL) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL) in isopropanol. The characterization results revealed that Zr-FDCA displayed higher Lewis acid-base sites due to the competition between acetic acid and FDCA, thus exhibiting an outstanding catalytic performance to give a FOL yield up to 100% at 150 degrees C in 3 h. Based on the experimental results, a kinetic model describing this reaction has been established and shown a good correlation between the measured and predicted data, which can provide an effective tool to monitor the process and tailor the process conditions to obtain the desired product. More gratifyingly, Zr-FDCA displayed good recyclability, which can be easily separated from the reaction mixture and repetitively used at least five runs without an obvious loss of activity. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Superscript/Subscript Available

Automated summary

The synthesis of a mesoporous metal-organic hybrid with high Lewis acid-base sites was achieved, and it exhibited excellent catalytic performance in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation reaction. The optimization of the reaction conditions and the establishment of a kinetic model provided an effective tool for process monitoring and product tailoring. Furthermore, the material demonstrated good recyclability without significant loss of activity.