Facet Effect of Single-Crystalline Pd Nanocrystals for Aerobic Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethyl-2-furfural

Single-crystalline Pd nanocrystals enclosed by {111} or {100} facets with controllable sizes were synthesized and originally employed as catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF). The experimental results indicated that the particle size and exposed facet of Pd nanocrystals could obviously influence their catalytic performance. The size-dependent effect of Pd nanocrystals in this reaction could only be derived from the different Pd dispersions. Therefore, the facet effect of Pd nanocrystals was first investigated in this work through experimental and theoretical approaches. It was found that Pd-NOs enclosed by {111} facets were more efficient than Pd-NCs enclosed by {100} facets for the aerobic oxidation of HMF, especially for the oxidation step from 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA) toward 5-formyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (FFCA). The TOF value of Pd-NOs(6 nm) was 2.6 times as high as that of Pd-NCs(7 nm) and 5.2 times higher than that of commercial Pd/C catalyst for HMF oxidation. Through density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the notably enhanced catalytic performance of Pd-NOs could be mainly attributed to the lower energy barrier in the alcohol oxidation step (from HMFCA to FFCA) and higher selectivity for O-2 hydrogenation to produce peroxide.