Highly Dispersed CoFe Catalyst for Selective Hydrogenation of Biomass‐Derived Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol

Abstract

Biorefinery to fabricate biofuels, chemicals, and materials has attracted much attention. Herein, a highly dispersed non‐noble CoFe immobilized on nitrogen‐doped carbon catalyst is prepared via a template sacrificial method. Owing to the synergetic effect of Co and Fe, the high dispersity of CoFe nanoparticles and large specific surface area, the optimized Co 9 ‐Fe 1 ‐NC catalyst exhibits high activity for the selective hydrogenation of furfural (FAL) to furfuryl alcohol (FOL). Hundred percentage conversion of FAL and 99% selectivity of FOL are obtained at 120 °C with 1 MPa H 2 for 4 h, which is superior to most of the reported nonprecious catalysts. Moreover, the Co 9 ‐Fe 1 ‐NC catalyst can also catalyze the hydrogenation of nitro and carbonyl compounds efficiently. The mechanism of hydrogenation of FAL is revealed by density functional theory calculations. This work provides a promising synthetic strategy for the rational structural design of efficient selective hydrogenation catalysts.