Construction of Surfactant Modified Zr(Oh)4-Fe3o4 Nanoparticles for the Efficient Synthesis of Furfuryl Alcohol from Furfural

Abstract

Magnetic zirconium-based nanoparticles show excellent advantages in catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of carbonyl compounds. However, the easy agglomeration property limits its large-scale application. In this work, the authors successfully synthesize a series of uniform dispersed Zr(OH)4-Fe3O4 nanoparticles with the modification of surfactants. The steric hindrance of surfactants is contributed to reducing the aggregation of magnetic particles and the high dispersion of active metal, thus improving the adsorption of substrate. Systematic characterizations reveal that 4-chlorobenzenesulfonic acid (CSA) affords larger specific surface area and more Lewis acid and base sites due to its largest steric hindrance, which are beneficial to the adsorption of furfural (FAL), and the FAL adsorbance is as high as 270 mg/g. As expected, Zr(OH)4-Fe3O4-CSA shows universal for CTH of carbonyl compounds into their corresponding alcohols, a 100% of FAL conversion with 99% of furfuryl alcohol (FOL) selectivity is obtained under the optimum conditions, and the turn-over frequency (TOF) is up to 48.7 h-1. Gratifyingly, Zr(OH)4-Fe3O4-CSA also shows magnetism and good reusability, which can be separated from the reaction mixture and reused for 4 times without significant changes in its activity and structure.

Keywords: furfural, furfuryl alcohol, magnetic catalyst, surfactant, Catalytic transfer hydrogenation