Hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol over Co-B amorphous catalysts prepared by chemical reduction in variable media

Five Co-B amorphous alloy catalysts were prepared by chemical reduction in different media, including pure water and pure ethanol as well as the mixture of ethanol and water with variable ethanol content. Their catalytic properties were evaluated using liquid phase furfural hydrogenation to furfuryl alcohol as the probe reaction. It was found that the reaction media had no significant influence on either the amorphous structure of the Co-B catalyst or the electronic interaction between metallic Co and alloying B. This could successfully account for the fact that all the as-prepared Co-B catalysts exhibited almost the same selectivity to furfuryl alcohol and the same activity per surface area (R-H(s)), which could be considered as the intrinsic activity, since the nature of active sites remained unchanged. However, the activity per gram of Co (R-H(m)) of the as-prepared Co-B catalysts increased rapidly when the Hethanol content in the water-ethanol mixture used as the reaction medium for catalyst preparation increased. This could be attributed to the rapid increase in the surface area possibly owing to the presence of more oxidized boron species which could serve as a support for dispersing the Co-B amorphous alloy particles.