Designing efficient and facile recoverable
catalysts is desired for sustainable biomass valorization. This work
reports the one-pot synthesis of a novel magnetic Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 nanocatalyst for hydrogenation of biomass-derived
furfural into valuable furfuryl alcohol. Various techniques were used
to systematically analyze the physicochemical properties of the Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 nanocatalyst. Vibrating sample magnetometer
analysis reveals low coercivity of Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 (6.991 G) compared with that of Fe3O4–SiO2 (27.323 G), which is attributed to highly
dispersed Ni species in the Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 catalyst. HRTEM images indicated the nanosized nature of the Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 catalyst with an average diameter
of ∼14.32 nm. The Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 catalyst showed a superior BET surface area (259 m2/g),
which is due to the formation of nanosized particles. The magnetic
Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 nanocatalyst shows a
remarkable performance with 94.3 and 93.5% conversions of furfural
and ∼100% selectivity of furfuryl alcohol at 90 °C and
20 H2 bar and 250 °C and 5 H2 bar, respectively.
Using heptane as a solvent, the effect of temperature, pressure, reactant
amount, and catalyst loading were investigated to optimize the reaction
conditions. A probable mechanism via a non-hydrogen spillover route
was proposed for the hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol
over the magnetic Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 nanocatalyst.
The efficiency of the magnetic Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 nanocatalyst is attributed to highly dispersed nickel species,
which plays a key role in the dissociation of H2 into a
proton and a hydride in the furfural hydrogenation. The superior performance
of the magnetic Fe(NiFe)O4–SiO2 nanocatalyst,
along with the advantages of low cost and easy recoverability, could
make it a new appealing catalyst in various selective hydrogenation
reactions.
Mixed metal cobalt titanium oxide (CoTiO3) prepared by solution phase method has been evaluated for the liquid phase catalytic oxidation of vanillyl alcohol to vanillin using H2O2 as an oxygen source.
Novel tetrakis-imidazolium and benzimidazolium ILs containing tetra-ester groups with incorporated quadruple side chains were synthesized successfully as degradable surfactants of expected medical and industrial applications.
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